Promoting ethical journalism in Cyprus
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media
“One island, one profession”
Cyprus Dialogue second meeting, 25 April 2017
EJN director Aidan White led a discussion on self-regulation, ethical journalism and ways to improve quality of journalism in Nicosia on 25 April as part of a series of events organised by the OSCE bringing together journalists from the North and South of the island of Cyprus.
Background
In early February 2017 Dunja Mijatović, the former OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, was invited to Nicosia to speak at a seminar on challenges to press freedom, and exchanged views with journalists, media and human rights NGOs and media experts from both the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot communities.
The event was organized by the PRIO Center in Cyprus and sponsored by the governments of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and the European Parliament Office in Nicosia. Journalists from both communities expressed their wish to start a dialogue with the OSCE to attempt to improve quality journalism.
A month later the office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media invited to Vienna the heads of the Cyprus Journalists Union as well as the Turkish Cypriot Journalist Union for a discussion about what they wish to achieve with the dialogue, and how the OSCE could be useful in making the dialogue more inclusive. Possible topics for this co-operation include developing a joint code of ethics, self-regulation, ethical standards.