Ethics Code to Make Journalists More Responsible
Ethics Code to Make Journalists More Responsible
Adopting an ethical code for journalists in Kyrgyzstan will raise individual responsibility for media content, but will not necessarily help to stamp out corrupt practices and libel, say NBCentralAsia media watchers.
Regional and national journalists will get together in late September to discuss and adopt a draft code of ethics.
Мedia watchdog Shamaral Maychiev said the code will make media workers more aware of their moral responsibilities.
Maychiev said a complaints commission will be set up after the code has been adopted, “to offer moral condemnation of irresponsible journalists”. Anyone taken to task by the commission will be publicly held up as an example, denting their publication or channel’s reputation as well as their own, he said.
Most journalists have welcomed the new code. Symbat Maksutova, a reporter with Erkin Too, a government-run newspaper, believes it will stop journalists from writing libellous reports and from taking backhanders in return for writing a favourable article.
Parliamentarian Kanybek Imanaliev, a former journalist, is confident that naming and shaming irresponsible journalists will help to improve the media’s reputation and earn public respect.
However, political analyst Toktogul Kakchekeev believes that journalists who rely on cash hand-outs to promote the interests of people with vested interests will carry on doing so.
“Journalists who don’t have a moral code of their own and who have got used to earning money from ‘commissioned’ articles will keep on writing in the same way despite this code,” he said.
Turat Akimov, deputy editor of the Obschestvenny Reyting newspaper, argues that it is up to media owners to ensure that the code is observed, and that will depend on the values and views that they hold.
“If the owner or founder of some publication ignores ethical values, then the journalists who work [there] will not be able to adhere to all the ethical standards,” he said.
But Aslan Sartbaev, the deputy editor of the Agym newspaper, says some journalists “will not be pushed around by the editor-in-chief or the media outlet owner”.
They will not want to harm their reputations by writing articles in return for a payment, he said.
Jypara Jeenalieva, editor-in-chief of the Jany Kylym paper, believes the new ethnical code will journalists extra leverage when fighting their corner during disputes with senior editorial staff.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
Regional and national journalists will get together in late September to discuss and adopt a draft code of ethics.
Мedia watchdog Shamaral Maychiev said the code will make media workers more aware of their moral responsibilities.
Maychiev said a complaints commission will be set up after the code has been adopted, “to offer moral condemnation of irresponsible journalists”. Anyone taken to task by the commission will be publicly held up as an example, denting their publication or channel’s reputation as well as their own, he said.
Most journalists have welcomed the new code. Symbat Maksutova, a reporter with Erkin Too, a government-run newspaper, believes it will stop journalists from writing libellous reports and from taking backhanders in return for writing a favourable article.
Parliamentarian Kanybek Imanaliev, a former journalist, is confident that naming and shaming irresponsible journalists will help to improve the media’s reputation and earn public respect.
However, political analyst Toktogul Kakchekeev believes that journalists who rely on cash hand-outs to promote the interests of people with vested interests will carry on doing so.
“Journalists who don’t have a moral code of their own and who have got used to earning money from ‘commissioned’ articles will keep on writing in the same way despite this code,” he said.
Turat Akimov, deputy editor of the Obschestvenny Reyting newspaper, argues that it is up to media owners to ensure that the code is observed, and that will depend on the values and views that they hold.
“If the owner or founder of some publication ignores ethical values, then the journalists who work [there] will not be able to adhere to all the ethical standards,” he said.
But Aslan Sartbaev, the deputy editor of the Agym newspaper, says some journalists “will not be pushed around by the editor-in-chief or the media outlet owner”.
They will not want to harm their reputations by writing articles in return for a payment, he said.
Jypara Jeenalieva, editor-in-chief of the Jany Kylym paper, believes the new ethnical code will journalists extra leverage when fighting their corner during disputes with senior editorial staff.
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
