Ethical Attitudes and Perceived Practice: A Comparative Study of Journalists in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

Abstract

This is a comparative survey study of journalists’ attitudes and perceptions concerning various types of conflicts of interest in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Journalists in all three regions are found to be receptive to freebies in the form of small gifts, meals and trips. However, they almost unanimously agree that monetary benefits from news sources are unacceptable. Compared with freebies, moonlighting seems to be a less serious problem in the three regions. Most journalists think that their colleagues do not commonly practice moonlighting. The journalists strongly agree that they should not solicit advertising on behalf of their employer or work for public relations firms or the government as a second job. With regard to self-censorship, journalists in the three regions unanimously agreed that softening negative coverage of key advertisers was unethical. However, there was considerable disagreement about softening negative coverage of government. The results also show that there is in general a discrepancy between the journalists’ value orientations and perceived reality, especially in Mainland China and Taiwan.

Keywords:

• Journalistic Ethics
• Journalists
• Conflicts of Interest
• Freebies
• Moonlighting
• Self-censorship

Notes

1. Of the 3,035 journalists we studied, 2,356 (77.6%) said their main job duties were reporting and editing. Among them, 909 (38.6%) were reporters, 908 (38.5%) were editors, and 539 (22.9%) described themselves as both reporters and editors. Of those responding to the questions, 466 (15.4%) were radio journalists, 494 (16.3%) were television journalists, 1,986 (65.5%) were newspaper journalists, and 84 (2.8%) were wire service journalists. The average monthly income of journalists in our study is US$1,736. Among them, Hong Kong journalists earned the most (US$3,421 per month), followed by Taiwan journalists (US$2,754). Mainland journalists earned the least (US$150). The average age for Mainland journalists is 37.4 compared to 35 for Taiwan journalists and 32 for Hong Kong journalists. About 67% of Mainland journalists are men compared to 59% for Taiwan journalists and 55% for Hong Kong journalists.