European Journalism Centre drafts international media code of ethics

The European Journalism Centre has drafted an international code of media ethics which it hopes could be used for training and editorial decision-making in the future.

The code, which is still in the early stages of development, details five ethical standards in journalism and asks that a journalist or blogger: seeks out the truth; respects privacy unless clearly in the public interest; defends press freedom and authors' rights; rejects discrimination and sensationalism; presumes innocence and protects sources.

It combines the national codes of France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK from Ethic Net along with the Bloggers Code of Ethics from Cyberjournalist.

Speaking to Journalism.co.uk, EJC editor Howard Hudson said the latest draft followed a resolution from the European Parliament last month that there should be a code of ethics applicable to new media.

He said he was also prompted into producing a draft code for both journalists and bloggers following comments made by Andrew Marr earlier this month.

"Are we facing this great existential threat from bloggers, which I picked up on with Andrew Marr's comments the other week. I personally don't think that's the case," Hudson said.

"You get a lot of bloggers who write incredibly good stuff. I also thought this code could try and make sense of everything that's going on internationally. We can learn from each other. But also that we can reconcile old media traditional journalists and new bloggers, because new bloggers are part of the landscape and they're not going away and the only direction things are moving in is online.

"It's a work in progress. I don't propose to have all the answers. It's a huge topic."
 
Reporting on the draft on EJC.net, he added that bloggers are not the enemy.

"We need to accept that we're in this together: journalists, bloggers, Brits, Germans, Italians, etc. We're in a media melting pot and we need clarity. A code of media coverage ethics can help define our joint priorities while creating a level playing field. For bloggers, it means stepping up to the mark; for reporters it means sharing a space with foreign and citizen journalists."
 
He added that the draft code is not designed to be enforced by an external authority, but as a point of reference for training and editorial decision-making.

Hudson has now created a community page about the code on the EJC website and will be inviting journalists and bloggers to help develop the code through rationales and case studies.

"I know a lot of people will probably say this is trying to be one size fits all, it's never going to work," he told Journalism.co.uk.

"But it is not supposed to be a straight jacket for anybody. It's supposed to be a back-up so if you're doing your investigative journalism whether you're a journalist or a blogger, you can say I've been doing my work responsibly so I can claim these protections."

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