For more on the US media and Trump scroll to the end of the newsletter.
Keep reading for our usual media ethics round up from around the world, including the premature death of of 'Fake News', the top 3 ethical challenges journalists will face in 2017, guidelines for terrorism reporting and much more.
Tom Law - EJN Campaigns and Communications Director
To mark the end of the first year of the Refugee Journalism Project the Ethical Journalism Network is taking part in an event to showcase the participants journalistic talents, document the project’s achievements, and to promote creative collaborations between journalists, students and academics. - 6pm Tuesday 7 March 2017 - London College of Communication - Buy tickets for the event here.
“FAKE NEWS,” a term for a specific brand of media fabrication that provided endless fodder for journalistic navel gazing since the presidential election, died on Monday. It was less than a year old.
The catchphrase had long battled chronic overuse by subjects of hard-edged news coverage, rendering it effectively meaningless. Despite clinical trials by journalists attempting to contain its usage, “fake news” finally succumbed on Monday when Wall Street Journal Editor Gerard Baker reportedly employed it at a staff meeting to describe criticisms that the paper’s coverage of President Donald Trump was soft.
IJNET has written about the EJN's Ethics in the News report, which examines the challenges faced by journalists in a “post-truth era”. Elyssa Pachico identifies three principal challenges:
1. How to report more responsibly on hate speech and intolerance.
2. The ethics behind publishing viral photographs of violence and death.
3. Dealing properly with sources and verifying online news.
Perhaps choosing a photo of such news value was in response to the 2016 winner being a photo of migrants crossing a European border that had not yet been published by any news agency.
A grant of $12,500 will be awarded to support the work of a promising early-career nonfiction writer on a story that uncovers truths about the human condition. Offered for the first time in 2015, the Award has been endowed by individuals and organizations touched by the life and work of Matthew Power, a wide-roving and award-winning journalist who sought to live and share the experience of the individuals and places on which he was reporting. Winners will have access to NYU’s libraries and the Institute’s facilities, including work space (as available).
The Reporting Award supports a work of journalism in any medium on significant underreported subjects in the public interest. The Institute will select up to two winners of the Reporting Award. Each winner may receive a different amount of money, at the discretion of the Committee. The maximum award is $12,500. Winners will have access to NYU’s libraries and the Institute’s facilities, including work space (as available).
If you would like to support the Ethical Journalism Network by translating our guidelines into you language contact Tom Law: tom.law@ethicaljournalismnetwork.org
Visit the Accountable Journalism database of codes of media ethics
