17. 10. 2014

ETHICAL GUIDELINES NEEDED FOR ONLINE JOURNALISM

All the ethical guidelines pertaining to traditional journalism should be applied to the online sphere, it was said at the round table that gathered representatives of journalists' associations, the Press Council, OSCE, journalism students and Internet experts.

Legal advisor of the OSCE Mission in Serbia Media Department Miroslav Jankovic said that self-regulation and the establishment of ethical standards should be a priority both in traditional and in the Internet media. According to him, ethical codexes need to adapt constantly to the new online media environment.

Jankovic said that journalists must pay attention to their behavior on social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, and he cited the example of a Dutch journalist who had insulted a local official on Twitter, which caused the Press Council to rule that he violated journalists' codex in this manner.

Director of SHARE Foundation Vladan Joler said that there is a battle on the Internet regarding whose information will reach the audience first. Due to this, news have a tendency to become "sensations packed up in 140 characters". He said that not enough attention is being paid to the technological angle of the ethics of the Internet media.

Secretary General of the Press Council Gordana Novakovic said that this self-regulatory body is competent also for the Internet media and for readers' comments on websites.

Journalist Mijat Lakicevic reminded the participants of the basic journalism rule: write the truth - and he added that the rule applies to all the media, whether they are traditional or online. "However, can everyone lie while the media report the truth? What about medical, lawyers', professors' ethics?", Lakicevic said. His view is that public debate and critical confronting of opinions are absent from our society because local elite is "lazy, inert and apathethic". According to him, we no longer have a problem only with tabloidization of the media, but also with tabloidization of the state.

"Our tabloids are like our elites", said Lakićević and added that the key ethical question for the Serbian media is their relationship with the authorities. "There is no survival of the media with the loss of identity or integrity. Obedient media are not media, they are PR agencies", Mijat Lakicevic said.

The round table was organized within the Campaign for Media Literacy of the Media Coalition, supported by USAID. The aim of the Campaign is raising public awareness on free and responsible journalism and its importance for the democratization of society.