Journalism Ethics in Multinational Family: “When in the EU, Should One Do as the EU Journalists Do?”

Abstract

This essay reviews a number of issues regarding self-regulation and professional ethics which journalists across Europe might face in the scaling down of national borders. The dilemma of whether a pan-European ideal standards code of ethics can help journalists when working across borders and encountering other traditions is explored by referring to Slovenia, one of the new European Union (EU) members. Presenting a critique of the traditional professionalization concept, cogent arguments are found for rejecting a universal code of ethics. By acknowledging the limitations and even deficiencies of such codified morality, a journalist's responsibility is emphasized and a different concept of ethics is indicated. Ethical journalists in this international context must focus on responsibility, positive tolerance, and empathy that transcends mere obedience to a code. The EU citizen's ethics rather than EU professional ethics should be advanced, based on universal principles and grounded in personal responsibility.

Notes

¹Slovenia, a former Yugoslav republic, became an independent parliamentary democracy in 1991. In 2008, it will become the first new Member State to hold the Presidency of the EU (www.uvi.si/eng/slovenia/in-brief/).

²This essay is concerned with ideal, universal standards codes, leaving aside the no less worthy topic of codes that are lists of specific practices in media institutions.

³See Ordine dei Giornalisti, Consiglio Nazionale (www.odg.it).

⁴See the Danish Code of Conduct (www.mediawise.org.uk/display_page.php?id=195).

⁵ Adopted in 2002 (www.novinar.com/dokumenti/Code_of_Ethic.doc).

⁶The national code of ethics is, in fact, one of the two journalistic codes in Slovenia. Namely, the Slovenian mass media has no tradition of developing institutional journalistic codes within a media organization, with the sole exception being the Code of the Slovenian Public Radio and Television, adopted in 2000.

⁷Actually, there is no Western European model, yet that is how it has been perceived in Central and Eastern Europe (see Jakubowicz, 2001, p. 67).

⁸See the President's Report for Enlargement seminar (www.novinar.com/eng/Seminar_report.doc).

⁹After 12 years of the center-left Liberal Democracy being at the head of the Slovenian Government, the center-right Slovenian Democratic Party won the parliamentary elections in 2004.

¹⁰See the Statement of the Annual Meeting on the Situation in Slovenia (www.ifj-europe.org/default.asp?index=3839&Language=EN).

¹¹See European Governance: A White Paper, 25 July 2001, COM(2001) 428 final (http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2001/fjcom2001_0428en01.pdf); Mandelkern Group on Better Regulation: Final Report, 13 November 2001 (www.csl.gov.pt/docs/groupfinal.pdf).

¹²Presented by the Commission of the European Communities, Brussels, 1 February 2006, COM(2006) 35 final (http://europa.eu.int/comm/communication_white_paper/doc/white_paper_en.pdf).

¹³See the EFJ Resolutions adopted at the annual meeting in Bled, Slovenia, 7–9 April 2006 (www.ifj-europe.org/pdfs/EFJ2006-resolutions-en.pdf).

¹⁴See the AIPCE Statement of Aims, 1999 (www.media-accountability.org/html/frameset.php?page=aipce).

¹⁵See the EFJ Resolutions adopted at the annual meeting in Bled, Slovenia, 7–9 April 2006 (www.ifj-europe.org/pdfs/EFJ2006-resolutions-en.pdf).

¹⁶Such was the case of an article recently published in a Slovenian tabloid, which encroached on the intimate life of a member of Slovenian Parliament. Journalists worked undercover to get information about the politician's extramarital sexual activity. They set a trap to reveal his habit of searching for sexual partners via the Internet. They published his private e-mail correspondence and phone messages, as well as some private information about his family members. The motive was presumably that the politician's private behavior had involved the use of public funds (for making contacts with sexual partners he had used a phone and a computer paid for with taxpayers' money). The politician's privacy was violated more than could be justified by the public interest. Yet after the publication, the tabloid involved tried to justify it by quoting the code of ethics, which permits an intrusion into a public official's privacy if there is an overriding public interest.

¹⁷Code of Ethics for the Press, Radio, and Television, adopted by the Co-operation Council of the Press in 1995, originally in 1978 (www.uta.fi/ethicnet/sweden.html).

¹⁸The texts of the codes are available at www.uta.fi/ethicnet/, and www.presswise.org.uk.