26th May 2016
By Stefanie Chernow

Ethical Journalism Network Newsletter – 26 May 2016

News

The Online News Association create new ethics code for Virtual Reality

The Online News Association has created a feature on its build your own ethics code website for newsrooms. This section addresses the goals of Virtual Reality productions, speculation and guesswork, and the physical and psychological effects of virtual reality on the viewer.

Read the full article here. (ONA)

Covering Bernie Sanders, has it been fair? The PBS Ombudsman generally says yes.

Throughout this extraordinary campaign season, the majority of the mail coming to the PBS Ombudsman has focused on the political coverage of the Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and how he and his campaign have been covered by the PBS NewsHour.

Read full article here (PBS)

9 Tips for Media to Responsibly Report on Australia’s Elections

With the upcoming Australian elections in July, the Australian Press Council is reminding the country’s news outlets about how to responsibly report. In guidance released this week, the council, which has about “900 real and virtual mastheads,” highlighted nine keys to covering the election.

Read full article here. (iMediaEthics)

Making media ethics work

With an aim to work out a plausible academic curriculum on Media Ethics that will bridge the gap between academics and the industry, Dr Kanchan K. Malik, professor at the University of Hyderabad, has been awarded a Federal grant by the US Consulate General Hyderabad, Public Affairs Section.

Read full article here. (Deccan Chronicle)

Police media guidelines set out for contact between officers and journalists

Draft media guidelines published by the College of Policing suggest a number of new controls on police contact with journalists.

They say that off-the-record (or non-reportable) conversations between police officers and journalists should only happen in “exceptional circumstances”.

Read the full article here. (Press Gazette)

Attitudes about news transcend technology and generational divide

Millennials are more likely than boomers to use smartphones for news, but professional journalism and news sources matter to both.

This is my final report on the results of the 2015 Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute Mobile Media News Consumption Survey. I will use it to explore the generational divide — mostly as it relates to the use of smartphones for news and attitudes about professional journalism and news sources — and to offer some suggestions for news organizations going forward.

Read full article here. (RJI)

Turkish Journalist Union Gets Press Freedom Award

The choice could hardly be more political sensitive: On 14th June this year, the Journalist Union of Turkey (Türkiye Gazeticiler Sendikasi, TGS) will receive a Silver Rose Award for Fundamental Rights in the European Parliament.

The prize is one out of four Silver Roses, dedicated to activists in the fields of social justice, global and human rights and universal education – and is handed out annually by SOLIDAR, the European network of 60 non-governmental organizations, working on social justice worldwide.

Read full article here. (GFMD)

Mapping Media Freedom marks second year of monitoring censorship in Europe

Mapping Media Freedom was launched to the public on 24 May 2014 to monitor media censorship and press freedom violations throughout Europe. Two years on, the platform has verified over 1,800 incidents, ranging from insults and cyberbullying to physical assaults and assassination.

Read full article here. (Index on Censorship)

Activities

European Dialogue on Internet Governance 2016, Brussels- Embracing the Digital Revolution

The Ethical Journalism Network’s director, Aidan White will be moderating a session at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) in Brussels on 9-10 June, on the subject of “Content is the king revisited: Opportunities and challenges for media, content, and news in the changing media landscape of an Internet-enabled world”.

Information from the organisers:

EuroDIG 2016 is hosted by EURid in cooperation with the European Commission. Registration opens from March, 1 – May 31 2016.

Programme

Some proposal submissions may be clustered in a category that does not match the initial expectations of the submitter. To avoid such misinterpretations, subject matter experts are involved in the clustering and programme drafting process.

All submitters and the community were kindly invited to comment on a first draft programme outline.

Now the programme is consolidated and all submitters are invited to join the various org teams. This is the best way to accommodate all individuals and stakeholder groups willing to participate in shaping the final programme.

Download the consolidated programme outline

How to get involved? Find out more

European Conference Marking Statewatch’s 25th Anniversary – Civil Liberties, the State, and the European Union

10:00 – 17:00, Saturday 25 June 2016

Resource for London, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 (map)

For 25 years Statewatch has been working to publish and promote investigative journalism and critical research in Europe in the fields of the state, justice and home affairs, civil liberties, accountability and openness. We invite you to join us in London on 25 June 2016 at our Conference where there will be:

Workshops and discussions on the refugee crisis in the Med and in the EU; mass surveillance; the EU’s crisis of legitimacy and accountability; the policing of protest and criminalisation of communities; racism, xenophobia and the far right; strategies of resistance and the defence of civil liberties.

PROGRAMME: PDF

Click to Book now:
http://statewatch.org/conference/

European Media Coverage of the Refugee Question- Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMED)

As part of the Institute of the Mediterranean’s series of conferences on Migration around the Mediterranean, the Ethical Journalism Network’s Advisor, Jean-Paul Marthoz, the EU Correspondent for the Committee to Protect Journalists, will be attending a roundtable on the European Media coverage of the Refugee question in Barcelona on 20 June 2016. The roundtable discussing will include an exploration of the Ethical Journalism Network’s recent report: Moving Stories – International Review of How Media Cover Migration. The debate will focus on how the refugee issue has been approached from the different European countries, what the dominant narratives are, what are the ethical considerations media professionals need to have when dealing with refugees, and how media professionals have coped with the situation. Journalists who have experience of covering migration will also be taking part.

Read more information about the event here.

Second European Media and Information Literacy Forum

The Ethical Journalism Network’s director, Aidan White, will be participating at the Second European Media and Information Literacy Forum in Riga, Latvia from 27 June 2016 – 29 June 2016. Watch the EJN’s Director, Aidan White, speaking at the first event in the series in Brussels here.

Read more information about the event here.

EJN Participating in Inaugural Aegean Summit in Athens, Greece – Creating an Annual Meeting Point for Independent Media Startups & Journalists: Europe, Mediterranean & MENA Cross-Border Collaborations

The Ethical Journalism Network’s director, Aidan White, will be speaking at the inaugural Aegean Summit in Athens on July 1st. The event hopes to become a forum for new and independent media in the Euro-Mediterranean & MENA with international speakers and participants.

The EJN will be participating in the session on the second day of the summit focusing on how migration & refugee crisis is being covered in the region’s media, referring to the findings from the EJN’s Moving Stories report on how media cover migration. The session will also explore how to work collaboratively to improve media literacy, responsible communications, tackle hate speech & intolerance, and strengthen self-regulation of independent media.

Read more about the event here.