Freelance Ethical Boundaries (and how to spot attempts to cross them)

Not long ago, I had a conversation with a potential client at a trade show. The prospect was indicating a strong need for my services, and he promised to call me the following week.

When that call came, I was prepared. Since the prospect had told me his needs — thought leadership articles — I had a contract outlined and had my pricing in place. But what happened next was so unexpected, I was left speechless.

It went something like this:

Client: As I mentioned, I’m looking to place some thought leadership articles in a few targeted publications. I thought it best to bring you on board to write them since I’m pretty busy with my law practice. The articles are all on risk management topics, and that’s in line with your expertise.

Me: That’s true. (At this point, I gave him a brief synopsis of my background.)

Client: So here’s what I need from you – you’ll interview me, write the article, I’ll edit it, then you can get it accepted by one of the magazines I’ve indicated. You have relationships with those publications, don’t you?

Me: I do, yes.

Client: Good, so you know which ones will pay you.

Me: Excuse me? Pay me?

Client: Yes, the idea is that you write it for me, I’ll edit it to where I want it, then you sell it to a magazine.

Me: ….

I admit, that was a new twist on an old theme. Here was yet another client trying damn hard to get me to do his bidding and answer to him without his actually having to pay me.

No.

NO.

HELL NO.

See, what the client wanted me to do was unethical. Magazines that are paying for your writing are paying for their product.

Let me repeat: That is the magazine’s product. Not yours. And it sure as hell doesn’t belong to the client prospect who wants something for nothing. Why?

Because it’s a clear conflict of interest. You, as a writer, cannot accept payment on both ends of a project, especially if that project is being paid for by the magazine that has agreed to buy it.

[bctt tweet=”Is your client blurring ethical boundaries? How to tell (and how to fix it). #freelancewriting” username=”LoriWidmer”]

You also cannot allow sources to control the narrative in the article. Media agencies have the right to publish material that meshes with their mission, audience, and standards. As they should – they’re paying for that content and have the right to make it fit within their own standards.

Here’s where the conflict is spelled out:

Deny favored treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage. 

That’s straight from the Society of Professional Journalism’s Code of Ethics page — a code all journalists are taught in college courses and are expected to adhere to in the performance of their jobs.

Journalistic ethics, in fact, are well-known and spelled out in detail.

[bctt tweet=”Prospective clients have no right to dictate – or edit – any work that a magazine is paying you for. #freelancewriting” username=”LoriWidmer”]

But what about client requests that aren’t necessarily going to fall under the Code?

It becomes a question of morality — yours. Here are some instances that could put your back to the wall:

• A client asks you to tweet disparaging comments about a competitor or start rumors that the competitor is in financial trouble
• A client prospect wants to pay you to ensure they are mentioned in your article
• A client asks you to make up statistics to support their product claims
• An editor makes you slant the quotes from experts to support the article premise they want to present
• A client asks you to rewrite someone else’s article and present it as their own ideas

Obviously, every one of these scenarios should be met with a big, fat NO.

But what if the line isn’t so clear? What do you do then?

Research it. In most cases, your gut reaction that something isn’t right is going to prove correct.

When in doubt, don’t.

If you’re still in doubt, ask. Ask here, ask a trusted friend, find a legal expert, whatever it takes to get you to a solid, reasonable answer. It is never okay to accept terms and demands from clients that are unethical. Doing so can put you in legal jeopardy, and could have larger repercussions when clients, looking for a scapegoat, point to their writer as the source of all wrongdoing.

Writers, have you ever been asked to do something questionable or clearly unethical?
How did you handle it?