One of the tasks of the broadcasting regulatory authority ‘Telecommunications and Postal matters’ includes ensuring that radio and television broadcasts adhere to ethical codes of communication; therefore a delay/interruption device must be installed, to censor non-acceptable expressions. A minister of the political party PAR (Omayra Leeflang) launched an initiative in 20071076 to stop socalled ‘call-in programmes’ through which citizens voice their opinions – often in harsh and offensive terms – about local politics and society at large. The minister’s media regulation (mediawet) also called for sanctions to be placed on radio stations which didn’t abide by general moral rules. The regulation was not well received in the Antillean parliament and was never put into effect.1077
Integrity (practice) Score: 25 TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE INTEGRITY OF MEDIA EMPLOYEES ENSURED IN PRACTICE?
There is a fragmented and reactive approach to ensuring the integrity of employees of media organisations. According to interviewees, overall, broadcasters and newspapers do not seem to have integrity provisions in practice. No integrity provisions could be found on broadcasters’ or newspaper’s websites. However, there are some exceptions, for instance, the news site Versgeperst has drafted a code of conduct for journalists.1078 This code states that a journalist is responsible for presenting news independently, fairly and honestly. This code may be related to Versgeperst’s origin, the site having been an initiative of Dutch journalism students from the Netherlands, where such codes are more commonplace. Overall, integrity in journalism is not a widely-discussed topic by the media themselves, although occasionally media companies report on the conduct of others. Due to particular incidents when, for instance, shocking pictures1079 or offensive language appear in the media, topics such as integrity and ethics are discussed by journalists, but only on an irregular basis.1080 Attempts at self-regulation mostly have to do with moral issues, such as in the case of a boycott of bloody pictures taken at traffic accidents or crime scenes appearing on the front page. This boycott lasted several months, until one of the newspapers decided it was costing too much. Respondents argue that in more recent years, journalists have become increasingly popular, with government appointing certain journalists on the board of supervisors of state-owned companies, which can be considered as a compensation for loyalty to the political party appointing them. This development has not raised many questions in public debate.1081 According to a media expert, this is symptomatic of a culture in which the community accepts that journalists are openly entertained and offered gifts by private companies, for example during presentations of annual reports or promotional campaigns. The media experts stated that various Curaçao businesses organise annual activities for the press corps, where journalists have dinner, are taken on boat trips and given mobile 1076
The deceased minister of Education, Stanley Lamp from the political party MAN, launched a similar kind of idea a few years earlier. 1077 ‘Media harm privacy’ (Media schendt privacy) 22 March 2010, via www.versgeperst.com [accessed 27 May 2013]. 1078 Code of conduct Vers geperst, www.versgeperst.com [accessed 21 May 2013], see also: Media code not on the right track, (Code slechte koers) 26 September 2007, via www.abcourant.com. 1079 Terrible pictures of death of two young girls in hotel 24 July 2012, via www.abcourant.com [accessed: 20 May 2013]. 1080 Ethics in Curaçao media (Welingelichte kringen over ethiek in de media) (RNW) 19 June 2010, via www.rnw.nl [accessed: 20 May 2013]. 1081 Sijtsma, 2012, p.31. 181
NATIONAL INTEGRITY SYSTEM ASSESSMENT CURAÇAO