This week a Bill entered the UK Parliament that would ban the phrase “honour killing”, replacing it simply with “murder”. Nusrat Ghani MP, who is behind the proposed new law said that it disguises the horror of the violence and means that “political correctness” becomes an obstacle to police investigations.
Pakistani journalist Tasneem Ahmar makes a similar case in the EJN's Ethics in the Newsreport:
Despite efforts to sensitise the media in Pakistan to gender issues, especially violence against women, few news outlets in their efforts to win ratings appear to apply balance. Almost all television channels sensationalised the murder in July 2016 of Qandeel Baloch, a model turned celebrity, by showing explicit photo shoots and interviews. The horror of a young life taken in its prime became a farce, and far from inviting sympathy many in the media depicted the murder as a matter of “honour”.
You can browse the highlights of last week's event in Brussels when the EJN presented the preliminary findings of a new study on migration in our new blog.
The 25 January event in Brussels also launched the Migration Media Award, which "will recognise and reward the excellence, relevance and newsworthiness of up to 36 journalism pieces dealing with migration in the Euro-Mediterranean region in all its aspects. The award consists of winning an EU-funded contract (from 500 Euros up to a maximum of 7000 euros) to produce a new original, more detailed, more researched content covering a topic in relation to migration in the Euro-Mediterranean area. This will result in up to 36 further journalistic pieces of work."
Thanks to our friends at Media Centar Sarajevo who have written about our Ethics in The News report in Bosnian: Budućnost novinarstva u eri post-istine. If you look at the end of the this article you can find information about the report in French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Emily Bell's new piece is, as always, essential reading: JOURNALISM’S BUSINESS CRISIS is well known, but in the wake of the US presidential election it is increasingly obvious that the true existential crisis for journalism is its lack of influence. Fake news, a decline in trust, and plunging revenues are all proxies for a loss of influence and impact over public opinion and policy. But influence, like energy, is only ever transferred, never destroyed. And the reluctant recipients of the displaced influence once enjoyed by the press are technology companies, which now command not just the dollars but the attention of the global audiences they serve.
The University of Texas at Austin has launched a great new media literacy tool: “Ethics Unwrapped” is a free educational program created at UT Austin to help people navigate ethical challenges and be more successful. Professors define ideas and students share examples in videos and animations about behavioral ethics, business ethics and basic ethics concepts. These research-based videos are used by more than 500 colleges and universities around the world and tens of thousands of ethics learners. Their latest video “Ethics & the Media: Propaganda” is a call to action for the public to educate themselves rather than rely on media to be aware.
Another great example of how media can play a positive role in media literacy, this time from Malta Today: An important skill that one should possess in the 21st century is that of media literacy; of being able to analyse and assess the complex messages that we receive from multiple streams of media.
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).
The Council of Europe, European Federation of Journalists, UNESCO, and other partners have helped us translate the EJN 5-point test for hate speech into 7 new languages including Albanian, Dutch, Indonesian, Macedonian, Serbian, Turkish andUkrainian. The test is already available in Arabic, English and French.
Visit the Accountable Journalism database of codes of media ethics