“We need to be very careful when we are reporting on attacks of terror organizations in Turkey,” Soydan explained. “For instance, we couldn’t report declarations of the PKK (a Kurdish insurgent group). Articles or coverage on the PKK could be prosecuted as propaganda of terror.” Even “finding sources from these organizations and interviewing them could be prosecuted in the courts,” he said, and some reporters have been tried. “But the reporters are insisting this is not propaganda but just news coverage of terror groups which are attacking Turkey. They claim–and I agree–that the public has right to get information even about terror groups.”
CIMA Research Report: Media Codes of Ethics
It’s a matter of ethics versus law. Freedom of the press is enshrined in the constitutions of many authoritarian countries where freedom of the press does not, in fact, exist. In these countries, journalists face imprisonment or worse for upholding what they perceive to be their own personal professional code of ethics. In such settings, it is reasonable to ask once again: What’s the point of press codes of ethics when living up to them poses, at the very least, an occupational hazard.
Freedom of the press is enshrined in the constitutions of many authoritarian countries where freedom of the press does not, in fact, exist.
On the other hand, in democracies where true freedom of the press is enshrined not only in law but ingrained in the culture, are self-regulating codes of ethics enough? Or, to put it another way, are codes in a free society relevant? “Yes, they are, but they are certainly merely a helping device and a node in the discourse of professions and in self-regulation of journalism,” said Kai Hafez, professor of journalism at the University of Erfert in Germany.29 “If not executed and applied, they are meaningless.”
Even in the Western context, he noted, “current practices in journalism violate many of the norms of such codes.” Commercial interests may trump the codes, for example, when it comes to publishing gossip. “Sometimes it seems that unclear codes are a mere reflection of unclear practices, and it is this fact that makes them even less meaningful.” In discussions of codes, said Jempson of the UK’s MediaWise, “very little is said about management behavior. Most codes are applied to reporters and editors, and the [British] Press Complaints Council consists solely of management. The blurring of editorial and advertorial, for instance, is not within the realm of reporters or editors to fix.” But it’s not enough to have a code of ethics, even if management is arguably held to the same standards. “It has to be put into practice. That’s the test for every country,” White said.30 “They are not just words you use. In practice, you have to be prepared to accept scrutiny and criticism.” Even in China, ranked 184th out of 196 countries in the Freedom House index, White found journalists and officials who wanted to discuss ethics, albeit in a different way. There he spoke
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Center for International Media Assistance