World News Media Congress & World Editors Forum 2017

The Ethical Journalism Network played an active part in the 69th World News Media Congress and the 24th World Editors Forum in Durban, South Africa from June 7-9, 2017.

For more information about the event download the brochure here. go to

The EJN’s participation with the World News Media Congress and World Editors Forum included:

Wednesday 7th June – Press Freedom Debate

The EJN director Aidan White participated in a debate on self-regulation and good governance as a defence against state interference in situations where industry self-regulation is not functioning.

Thursday 8th June – EJN Session on migration reporting and hate speech

This began with a summary of findings from recent studies conducted by the EJN and introduced the EJN’s migration reporting guidelines. The presentation then moved on to introduce the EJN’s ‘Turning the page of hate campaign’ in Africa and the Arab Media Hub Against Hate Speech. Fatemah Fareg, an advisor to the EJN, presented progress of the EJN collaboration with WAN-IFRA on the Women in News programme. This focused on the development of a Content Management System for Egyptian media that highlights gender-sensitive language and words that could constitute hate speech to encourage journalists to consider providing appropriate context and potential alternatives.

Newsroom safety protocols, personal, digital and sexual harassment

The EJN attended this session and when called upon talked about Ethical Choices When Journalist Go to War which was a chapter of “Conflict reporting in the smartphone era – from budget constraints to information warfare” published by the South East Europe Media Program of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung 2016.

Friday 8th June – EJN Lunch Time Talk

• The EJN Director Aidan White gave a lunchtime talk on ethical dilemmas in the post-truth world with EJN board members Kjersti Løken Stavrum and Randi S. Øgrey.