19th July 2016
By wp-admin-ss88

Ethical Journalism Network Newsletter – 19 July 2016

NEWS

MEDIA PURGE AFTER ABORTIVE COUP?

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warns the Turkish authorities against any temptation to silence critical media outlets on the pretext of punishing supposed supporters of the 16 July coup attempt. More than a dozen news websites suspected of “endangering national security or public order” have been blocked by the High Council for Telecommunications (TIB) in the past 48 hours at the request of the prime minister’s office. Under Turkish law, a government order blocking a website must be endorsed by an Ankara judge after the event.

Read the full article here. (RSF)

How Erdogan turned to social media to help foil coup in Turkey (Financial Times)

Press freedom post coup (ABC)

A photojournalist killed and media occupied in Turkey: press freedom was targeted (EFJ)

CPJ ANNOUNCES 2016 INTERNATIONAL PRESS FREEDOM AWARD WINNERS

The Committee to Protect Journalists will honor journalists from Egypt, India, Turkey, and El Salvador with its 2016 International Press Freedom Awards. The journalists have faced threats, legal action, and imprisonment. CPJ is also honoring Christiane Amanpour, chief international correspondent and anchor at CNN, with the Burton Benjamin Memorial Award.

The 2016 IPFA awardees are:

  • Mahmoud Abou Zeid, an Egyptian photojournalist also known as “Shawkan,” who has been imprisoned since August 2013. Shawkan was arrested while covering the dispersal by security forces of the Raba’a Al-Adawiya protest in Cairo, in which hundreds of protesters were killed.
  • Malini Subramaniam, a freelance journalist from India, who was attacked and harassed after she reported on human rights abuses and the conflict between Maoist groups and state forces in Chhattisgarh. Earlier this year, Subramaniam fled her home state after being repeatedly harassed and threatened.
  • Can Dündar, editor-in-chief of the Turkish daily Cumhuriyet, who was sentenced in May to five years and 10 months in prison on charges of revealing state secrets. The charges were in connection with reportsCumhuriyet published that alleged Turkey tried to smuggle weapons to Syrian opposition groups.
  • Óscar Martínez, an investigative reporter for the online newsmagazine El Faro in El Salvador, who covers gang violence and extrajudicial killings in the country. Martínez has been threatened for his work and CPJ has documented repeated threats against the staff of El Faro.

Read the full article here. (CPJ)

IN THE AGE OF TRUMP AND TERRORISM, DO MEDIA ETHICS NEED TO EVOLVE?

Is the media to blame for Donald Trump? How much weight should news organization give to stories that generate a lot of discussion, but are less pressing than a civil war in Yemen? We discuss modern media ethics with Washington Post editors Christine Emba and Robert Gebelhoff, joined by media columnists Margaret Sullivan and Erik Wemple.

Watch the full debate here. (Washington Post)

In the age of Donald Trump, is it time to revisit media ethics? (Washington Post)

How Western media would cover Baton Rouge if it happened overseas

If protests over police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile happened overseas, here’s how the foreign press would cover events around the United States.

Read the full article here. (Washington Post)

ETHICAL ISSUES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN JOURNALISM IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Nearly all African countries have Codes of Ethics to guide journalists in seeking “identity and integrity” and connecting people and places. This process has inevitably led to the introduction of Media or Journalism Ethics in the curricula of most institutions offering Mass Communication or Journalism program. Generally speaking, most of the curricula touch on different aspects of Ethics including Introduction to Ethics, Canons of Journalism, The Journalist’s dilemma, Privacy, Freedom and Responsibility, Freebies, Corruption, Responsibility to the society, Partisanship, Ownership and Environmental issues. Until about the end of the 20th Century, Journalism education only had to contend with Print, Radio and Television. However, the 21st Century has brought with it new concepts of journalism including Citizen Journalism and Online Journalism. These concepts have not only changed Journalism identity and integrity but have concomitantly changed ethical issues in Journalism practice in the Sub-Saharan region.

Read the full article here. (Daily Trust)

AFTER ATTACK IN FRANCE, FOX’S VAN SUSTEREN ALLOWS TRUMP TO ATTACK OBAMA WITH LIES

After news broke of a possible terror attack in Nice, France, Fox News hosted Donald Trump for a phone interview in which host Greta Van Susteren allowed him to attack President Obama and Hillary Clinton with debunked lies about refugees fleeing the war-torn Middle East.

At 5:44 PM ET time, Fox News reported a large truck had been driven through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, killing dozens.

At 7:20 PM ET time Donald Trump phoned into live coverage of the attack on Fox News. During the interview, Van Susteren allowed him to use falsehoods about Syrian refugees entering the United States to attack Obama and Clinton.

Read the full article here. (Media Matters)

United States – The Trump Card: How US news media dealt with a migrant hate manifesto (EJN)

NEARLY 1/2 OF COMPLAINTS TO IRISH PRESS COUNCIL ARE OVER TRUTH & ACCURACY

Almost 50% of the 278 complaints to the Irish Press Council in 2015 were over truth and accuracy, Ireland’s press ombudsman revealed, according to the Irish Times. Nearly a quarter of complaints focused on privacy.

Read the full article here. (iMediaEthics)

NEW VERTICAL VIDEO FROM BBC MEDIA ACTION TAKES OVER YOUR PHONE’S SCREEN TO SHOW THE STRUGGLE OF REFUGEES

BBC Media Action has produced a mobile-first video designed to put viewers in the shoes of refugees travelling to Europe, aiming to help audiences understand the fear of those fleeing their countries during the crisis. Tom Hannen, who produced the piece for BBC Media Action, told Journalism.co.uk how the video, which is designed to be watched vertically on a mobile phone, gives viewers the impression that it is co-opting their device by sending them text messages and WhatsApp notifications as if they were coming from their own contacts.

Read the full article here. (Journalism.co.uk)

The View from Brussels: Missed opportunities to call the European Union to account (EJN)

‘REAL WORLD’ JOURNO SCHOOLS FACE ETHICAL DILEMMAS

Teaching hospital” is a model that is regarded as a way for journalism educators to turn their classrooms into newsrooms by immersing students into a practical learning environment. But it is often debated among media educators who are continuously faced with ethical dilemmas of trying to provide a real world learning experience while staying within the boundaries of institutional ethics and keeping students safe on location. It was a topic discussed among media educators at the 4th World Journalism Education Congress in New Zealand this week.

Read the full article here. (Asia Pacific Report)

Pacific needs more trained journalists

Media educators and trainers have come together to form a new regional body to address the decreasing number of journalists and educators in the Pacific.

Read the full article here. (Radio New Zealand)

TV HOST SONIA KRUGER CALLS FOR END TO MUSLIM MIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA

The TV presenter Sonia Kruger has called for an end to Muslim immigration to Australia, saying she agrees with the US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s stance on immigration. The host of Channel Nine’s The Voice and Today Extra was discussing the massacre in Nice when she said she agreed with the views expressed by the Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt, who argued in a column “the more Muslims we import, the more danger we are in”.

Read the full article here. (Guardian Australia)

Australia – In a nation of migrants the media faces its own identity crisis (EJN)

GAWKER FOUNDER SAYS LISTENING TO READERS ISN’T JUST GOOD ON PRINCIPLE, BUT GOOD FOR BUSINESS.

Gawker Media founder Nick Denton has a lot of things on his mind right now, not the least of which is the future of his company as it goes through a court-ordered bankruptcy auction—a process sparked by a $140-million court award in the Hulk Hogan case for publishing a sex video. But that’s not what Denton wants to talk about this morning. After a recent piece written by the New York Times‘ new public editor on the value of reader engagement, he wants to talk about why he sees a future in allowing reader comments when almost every other media organization seems to have given up on them or is at least thinking about doing so.

Read the full article here. (Fortune Magazine)

ACTIVITIES

THE CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPING A CULTURE OF ETHICS AND TOLERANCE IN PUBLIC DISCOURSE ON MIGRATION

The Ethical Journalism Network’s director, Aidan White, participated in the Africa e Mediterraneo and Lai-momo Summer School on Forced Migration and Asylum in Bologna on 15 July 2016. The event brought together international experts, academics and professionals to guide participants during five day of intensive training to foster debate on how to improve media coverage of migration.

Read the highlights of the event here. (EJN)

For more on media and migration read the EJN’s Moving Stories report: International Review of How Media Cover Migration

Press Release | Foreword | Introduction | Recommendations

ETHICAL JOURNALISM IN THE DIGITAL ERA: COUNTERING PROPAGANDA AND HATE SPEECH

On 14 July 2016, the Ethical Journalism Network’s director, Aidan White, attended the Summer School for Journalists and Media Practioners in Florence, Italy. This year the theme was “Journalism in the Digital Age”.

Read the highlights of the event here. (EJN)

TURKISH JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF PRESS FREEDOM PRIZE FOR 2016

The Ethical Journalism Network and the other groups in a coalition of international freedom of expression groups was this week recognised by the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) in their annual Press Freedom Awards. The Grand Jury decided that the Coalition of International Free Expression Groups merit the Press Freedom Prize “for the unique solidarity unparalleled in the past, it showed against the assaults on press freedom in Turkey, for its efforts to bring to international platforms the violation of rights and for instilling in their Turkish colleagues the feeling that they are not alone.”