30. 04. 2004

Journalists demand ethics council

BELGRADE, April 30, 2004 – Journalists are obliged to speak the truth and not to put blind trust in sources, the president of the Independent Association of Serbian Journalists said today. Nebojsa Bugarinovic was commenting on an interview in Belgrade daily Kurir with “Captain Joe”. He described the uncritical publication of threats as dangerous because it does not put the threats into the context of the interests of the person making the threat or the interest group to which they belong. On the issue of media responsibility, Bugarinovic says he is against bans imposed by the courts or the administration, but that the Captain Joe interview clearly demonstrates that Serbia has no kind of council for ethical journalism. Such a council, he says, would be made up of eminent professionals and would react in public as well as having the power to order corrections. Bugarinovic, in a statement for B92, said that the procedures for checking sources should be regulated within each institution. “It’s impossible to give credence to someone who telephones the newsroom and introduces himself as a member of some group or association,” he said.