1st International Media Ethics Day 2011

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THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ETHICS DAY CELEBRATED IN PAKISTAN

The first International Media Ethics Day observed in Pakistan by the Karachi Press Club in collaboration with the Center for International Media Ethics (CIME) and Mishal Pakistan. The Day has been created by CIME to engage the media community throughout the world to have an open dialogue on media ethics.

The aim of the Media Ethics Day is to mobilize the journalism community and provide journalists around the world with an opportunity to discuss media ethics issues, examine case studies, and participate in role-plays and debates related to the various ethical dilemmas they might expect to face on the job.

Aamir Latif, President Karachi Union of Journalist stressed on the need to highlight the ethical challenges faced by the Pakistani Journalists and sees this day as an opportunity for the journalists to work together to make their own judgments and identify their own strategies.

CIME aims to prepare and infuse journalists with the energy and support they need to make their own ethical decisions in reporting and negotiating with anyone or anything that might be trying to obstruct their own sound decision-making. The International Media Ethics Day events are especially important because local organisations volunteer to do it for local people and CIME provides support and expertise to help them said Suzanne Harris, Associate for the Center for International Media Ethics.

Puruesh Chaudhary, CIME Ambassador to Pakistan and the Director Content for Mishal Pakistan underscored the need for a joint code of conduct to agree upon basic guidelines for reporters and cameramen and encouraged the journalist community to take on a proactive role in defining ethical practices through the choices and decisions made at work on a daily basis.

The Center for International Media Ethics and Mishal Pakistan believe that it is essential for the local journalists to collaborate with one another on a national level, to express their opinions and become actively involved in enforcing ethical media practices. Mishal Pakistan, a strategic communication policy design social enterprise in collaboration with the Center for International Media Ethics is observing the International Media Ethics Day at the Karachi Press Club as part of the Agahi Initiative. Agahi, aims to utilize institutionalized, sustainable media structures in Pakistan to raise the bar of journalistic standards through training to increasing responsible, balanced reporting and investigative journalism.

Senior journalist Amir Zia said that a reporter while reporting on a terrorist attack should keep in mind not to glamorize militancy. He said that the western media served as a yardstick, and during the 9/11 attack, the bodies of people were not shown on television, and the privacy of the victims was respected. However in Pakistan, reporters and photographers barged into emergency wards when doctors were struggling with their patients.

Mishal Pakistan Chief Executive Officer, Amir Jahangir on the occasion said that, media in Pakistan is passing through a transition, it is accumulating a lot of information, making Pakistan an information society, however the synthesis of information into knowledge has still to be evolved. Initiatives like this would lead to better understanding of communication challenges, especially in terms of Dignity, Journalism and Leadership.

The objective of the Center for International Media Ethics’ International Media Ethics Day is to mobilize the journalism community and provide media professionals with the opportunity to partake in local workshops. By participating in discussions conducted in their own language, local journalists can feel more comfortable and more enabled to talk about such a complex subject as the ethics of their profession. The center’s driving emphasis is that journalists together have the power to formulate and enforce a tacit code of ethics as a status quo of their profession.

The event was attended by leading journalists from print and electronic media along with representatives of media entities and civil society organizations.

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ETHICS DAY CELEBRATED IN PAKISTAN

THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ETHICS DAY CELEBRATED IN PAKISTAN

The first International Media Ethics Day observed in Pakistan by the Karachi Press Club in collaboration with the Center forInternational Media Ethics (CIME) and Mishal Pakistan. The Day has been created by CIME to engage the media community throughout the world to have an open dialogue on media ethics.

The aim of the Media Ethics Day is to mobilize the journalism community and provide journalists around the world with an opportunity to discuss media ethics issues, examine case studies, and participate in role-plays and debates related to the various ethical dilemmas they might expect to face on the job.

AamirLatif, President Karachi Union of Journalist stressed on the need to highlight the ethical challenges faced by the Pakistani Journalists and sees this day as an opportunity for the journalists to work together to make their own judgments and identify their own strategies.

CIME aims to prepare and infuse journalists with the energy and support they need to make their own ethical decisions in reporting and negotiating with anyone or anything that might be trying to obstruct their own sound decision-making. The International Media Ethics Day events are especially important because local organisations volunteer to do it for local people and CIME provides support and expertise to help them said Suzanne Harris, Associate for the Center for International Media Ethics.

PurueshChaudhary, CIME Ambassador to Pakistan and the Director Content for MishalPakistan underscored the need for a joint code of conduct to agree upon basic guidelines for reporters and cameramen and encouraged the journalist community to take on a proactive role in defining ethical practices through the choices and decisions made at work on a daily basis.

The Center for International Media Ethics and Mishal Pakistan believe that it is essential for the local journalists to collaborate with one another on a national level, to express their opinions and become actively involved in enforcing ethical media practices. Mishal Pakistan, a strategic communication policy design social enterprise in collaboration with the Center for International Media Ethics is observing the International Media Ethics Day at the Karachi Press Club as part of the Agahi Initiative. Agahi, aims to utilize institutionalized, sustainable media structures in Pakistan to raise the bar of journalistic standards through training to increasing responsible, balanced reporting and investigative journalism.

Senior journalist Amir Zia said that a reporter while reporting on a terrorist attack should keep in mind not to glamorize militancy. He said that the western media served as a yardstick, and during the 9/11 attack, the bodies of people were not shown on television, and the privacy of the victims was respected. However in Pakistan, reporters and photographers barged into emergency wards when doctors were struggling with their patients.

Mishal Pakistan Chief Executive Officer, Amir Jahangir on the occasion said that, media in Pakistan is passing through a transition, it is accumulating a lot of information, making Pakistan an information society, however the synthesis of information into knowledge has still to be evolved. Initiatives like this would lead to better understanding of communication challenges, especially in terms of Dignity, Journalism and Leadership. 

The objective of the Center for International Media Ethics’ International Media Ethics Day is to mobilize the journalism community and provide media professionals with the opportunity to partake in local workshops. By participating in discussions conducted in their own language, local journalists can feel more comfortable and more enabled to talk about such a complex subject as the ethics of their profession. The center’s driving emphasis is that journalists together have the power to formulate and enforce a tacit code of ethics as a status quo of their profession.

The event was attended by leading journalists from print and electronic media along with representatives of media entities and civil society organizations.

Need for sensitising journalists underlined

Need for sensitising journalists underlined

Need for sensitising journalists underlined

our correspondent
Saturday, September 24, 2011

Need for sensitising journalists underlined

Speakers at a session on media ethics stressed upon the need for sensitising journalists when reporting on victims of untoward incidents, and said that terrorism incidents should not be reported in a manner which promoted militancy.

The event, celebrating the first international Media Ethics Day, was held by the Centre for International Media Ethics (CIME) in collaboration with the Karachi Press Club here on Friday.

Senior journalist Amir Zia said that a reporter while reporting on a terrorist attack should keep in mind not to glamorize militancy.

He said that the western media served as a yardstick, and during the 9/11 attack, the bodies of people were not shown on television, and the privacy of the victims was respected.

However in Pakistan, reporters and photographers barged into emergency wards when doctors were struggling with their patients.

While replying to a question whether it was ethical for a reporter to talk to the family of a victim of a terrorist attack or any other untoward incident, he said that this could be done without offending the family.

He emphasized on the need of being sensitive towards the victims, which reporters hardly cared about.

Zia also touched upon bloggers and said that they should not mix fiction with facts.

Zia said that protection of sources was very important, and some people in the West had even gone to jail to protect their sources.

An associate for the CIME, Suzanne Haris, who spoke on the ethics of the media via video conference, said that after the News of the World scandal, investigative journalism had become a problem, and people were raising concerns over the type of reporting in which phones were hacked.

Taking stock: Pakistan has ‘unprofessional journalists and professional readers’

Taking stock: Pakistan has ‘unprofessional journalists and professional readers’

By Sidrah Moiz Khan

Published: September 24, 2011

Amir Zia acknowledged that journalists face pressure from their desk editors for giving sensational pieces.

KARACHI: Libel and defamation is taken lightly by journalists in Pakistan, journalist Amir Zia told a seminar on media ethics at the Karachi Press Club on Friday, adding that this had led to a rise in sensationalism.

The seminar was held to mark International Media Ethics Day. Zia, who is Business Editor at The News, told the few listeners at the gathering that one of the important issues in the media today was the credibility of sources and the extent that journalists go to protect them. “It is a very hard job,” he said, while talking about the profession, adding “many journalists have gone to jail because they did not reveal their sources.”

The seminar focused on increasing the capacity of investigative journalism for a responsible media in Pakistan. Taking the issue further, Aamir Latif of Online News Agency, talked about the importance of journalists to protect their sources. Latif said that investigative journalism in Pakistan was a reality and that people should be aware that everything they say or do “has ramifications.” He also said that a journalist should be careful of his or her credibility and the credibility of his or her sources.

Latif pointed out the fact that Pakistan now had “unprofessional journalists and professional readers”.

Suzanne Harris of the Centre of International Media Ethics (CIME), who joined the discussion over video link, said that the media in Britain was more legally bound than in other countries and had in place many ethical practices. “Journalists are very careful when they report something,” she claimed.

Harris also had some advice for Pakistani journalists in terms of ethics. She urged them not to barge into the privacy of the victims’ family when there was a blast or any other act of terror. “Instead they should ask for consent before speaking to the family members,” she added.

The speakers talked about how journalists should know the motive of the terrorist – “it’s not just blowing up bombs,” said Amir Zia, adding “a journalist should be able to gauge it and not help in advancing the terrorists’ cause.”

He acknowledged that journalists face pressure from their desk editors for giving sensational pieces, to which Latif commented that journalists are “commandos” and should work out ways for themselves.

Zia also raised his voice against the practice of showing blood-soaked bodies and violence on TV and said that many television channels in Pakistan are indulging in this practice. He added that with the inception of blogs and new media, journalists are facing new challenges due to which “many journalists blend fact and fiction.”

The discussion then moved on from media laws and ethics to job security and the economic crunch in the media industry in Pakistan. The journalists present asked questions about their job security and payment of salaries to which Zia said the crunch in the media was being witnessed around the world. In the US recently, 350 to 400 newspapers had shut down. Latif observed that the newspaper industry was shrinking in the West but was growing in South Asia.

The conference was organised by Mishal Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2011.