8. Comparison of codes of ethics

University of Botswana

Department of Media Studies

BMS 226 ETHICS FOR MEDIA PROFESSIONALS

HANDOUT 8: COMPARISON OF CODES OF ETHICS

Journalism Ethics Revisited: A Comparison of Ethics Codes in Europe, North Africa,

the Middle East, and Muslim Asia, By Kai Hafez

Published in Political Communication, 19:225–250, 2002

ABSTRACT

Formal journalism ethics, as laid out in codes of ethics by journalism associations

and the like, is part of a wider debate on media ethics that has been triggered in the

Middle East due to the advent of global media in the region. This study compares

journalism codes from Europe and the Islamic world in order to revisit the widespread

academic assumption of a deep divide between Western and Oriental philosophies

of journalism that has played a role in many debates on political communication

in the area. The analysis shows that there is a broad intercultural consensus

that standards of truth and objectivity should be central values of journalism. Norms

protecting the private sphere are, in fact, more pronounced in countries of the Near

and Middle East, North Africa, and in the majority of Muslim states in Asia than is

generally the case in Europe, although the weighing of privacy protection against

the public’s right to information is today a component of most journalistic codes

of behavior in Islamic countries. Obvious differences between the West and many

Islamic countries are to be found in the status accorded to freedom of expression.

Although ideas of freedom have entered formal media ethics in the Middle East and

the Islamic world, only a minority of documents limit the interference into freedom

to cases where other fundamental rights (e.g., privacy) are touched, whereas the

majority would have journalists accept political, national, religious, or cultural boundaries

to their work. Despite existing differences between Western and Middle Eastern/

Islamic journalism ethics and in contrast to the overall neoconservative (Islamist)

trends in societal norms, formal journalism ethics has been a sphere of growing

universalization throughout the last decades.

The research showed:

Truth: There is a broad intercultural consensus that truth and objectivity should be the central values of journalism.

Privacy: Norms protecting privacy are more pronounced in the Near and Middle East, Africa and the Muslim states than in Europe.

Freedom of expression: This varied across countries, in the Middle East / Muslim countries journalists are expected to accept the political, national, religious or cultural boundaries imposed upon all people in the country. This means that just because there is a code of ethic in favour of free speech, it doesn’t mean there actually is free speech in the country.

Internationalism: It is important for codes of ethics to recognise that many journalists work on a global stage. And foreign news coverage can influence international relations – especially at moments of international crisis, media can exert pressure on national foreign policies by creating or representing a certain public climate to whose influence politicians are susceptible.

To get a copy of the full article see Prof Rooney.