27th February 2015
By Stefanie Chernow

Ethical Journalism Newsletter: February 27, 2015

Ethical Journalism News And Debates

Director’s Letter: February 2015

The highlight of this month has been the launch of our 16-country report on self-regulation in journalism and media. The report The Trust Factor is available here. The report was launched in Oslo February 24 and highlights how self-regulation needs to adapt to the context of the changing structure of journalism and media.

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Self-regulation, codes of conduct and accountability

The EJN has issued a short video of a round-table discussion among EJN leaders highlighting some of the challenges in the self-regulation debate. Watch the video here.

An ethical checklist for robot journalism

News organizations are experimenting increasingly with robot journalism, using computer programs to transform data into news stories or news stories into multimedia presentations. What are the ethics of robot journalism? When editors consider using automated news writing, what issues of accuracy, quality and transparency arise? Here’s a checklist of what editors should ask.

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Social media, ethics and awards

We need more such incentives to prompt journalists, bloggers and others to couple journalistic prowess with self-regulated ethics in a bid to avoid the force-feeding of often outdated or unfair laws. (via The Huffington Post)

Why Bill O’Reilly can play hardball on his war zone story

Fox has made clear that it doesn’t see itself bound by the same rules of public accountability it calls on other news organizations to uphold. (via Columbia Journalism Review)

Twitter boss vows to crack down on trolls and abuse

Shifting the cost of dealing with harassment onto the accused harassers will be welcomed by people who have been targeted for such abuse. Even so, it is fraught with pitfalls for Twitter, if its new policy is not well thought out. (via The Guardian)

Reports & Resources

Watching the watchdog: Launch of EJN international report on self-regulation

Systems of self-regulation of media and journalism need radical rethinking if they are to survive the harsh economic and political realities of news media in the digital age. That’s the key conclusion of an international survey issued by the Ethical Journalism Network.

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[Video] Ethics 101: What is journalism and who is a journalist?

In the digital age it can be confusing who is entitled to call themselves a journalists, and more importantly be protected from government pressures under that title. The EJN director defines journalism and acts of journalism in this short video. Watch the video here.

Agahi Awards

The Agahi Awards – Beyond 2015 welcomes journalists from all over Pakistan to nominate their best work. This year diversity, culture of self-regulation, fairness, impartiality, credibility, knowledge equity is celebrated across 35 different categories. Submit your work here.