EYE ON ETHICS

Ms. Uy is the Readers’ Advocate of the Mindanao Insider in Davao City, 978.01 kms south of Manila, Philippines.
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In reporting suicide, a fine line divides competing interests: the public’s right to know vs. the right to privacy of the victim, public interest vs. the risk of contagion suicides. But the issues are rooted in more basic questions: Why do the media report suicides? Should they, or should they not? How should suicide be reported without doing violence to the journalistic principles of truth-telling and minimizing harm?

Almost a year ago, the Philippine media widely reported the suicide of a 12-year-old girl in Davao City. The girl, who came from a poor family, was hailed a martyr of poverty. A year later, the media continue to associate poverty with suicide. The link is tempting – after all, a third of the Philippine population is poor, food and oil prices continue to rise, and the government is constantly mired in corruption scandals.

The case provides a good study of how the media’s dramatization of suicide amidst poverty, even if well-intentioned, only befuddled the situation. The girl’s death sparked a word war between the two leading officials of Davao City.

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Mr. Anderson, born in Olean, New York in 1944, is the Thailand representative of American Citizens Abroad and a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to Thailand from 1965 to 1967. At the time assigned to a community development role, he then worked in Thailand as a freelance writer and TEFL teacher before transferring to Iran and Saudi Arabia with his Thai wife. He founded northeast Thailand’s first local English language newspaper, The Korat Post. He also writes under the pen name Brian Knight.
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The Thai ruling elite, military, and police have relied on Thailand’s Criminal Code to silence dissent, cow the opposition and inflict prison time on those deemed to have committed various offenses, including that of lèse majesté, a law detailed in the Criminal Code’s Article 112:

“Whosoever defames, insults or threatens the King, Queen, the heir-apparent or the Regent shall be punished with imprisonment of three to fifteen years.”

This obviously puts serious restraints on efforts within the kingdom to promote ethical media reform.

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Mr. Arao teaches several Journalism, Media and Communication courses at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC), one of which is the master’s level course Media 230 (Media Ethics).
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As a rule, journalists cover an event or issue as independent observers. They are taught not to have any direct participation in it because doing so could compromise their objectivity and credibility.

But this situation applies in a “normal” society. That the Philippine media sometimes face ethical dilemmas in fulfilling this “simple” rule indicates either one of two things – that journalists do not have a firm grasp of ethics, or Philippine society is far from “normal.” Of course, one can argue that it could be both.

In any case, the impartial manner of reportage expected of journalists is not as simple as it seems especially when they face interests that conflict with their own. Then again, reporters who remember their basic journalism ethics would know that they should inhibit themselves from reporting or commenting on issues and concerns that directly affect them.

Aside from being an ethical issue, the imperative of a journalist’s inhibiting himself or herself in times of conflict of interest also has legal considerations: Any charge of libel against him or her would most likely result in conviction, considering that the hard-to-prove element of malicious intent could be established once conflict of interest becomes apparent.

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Mr. Basorie teaches journalism at the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute, LPDS, in Jakarta, Indonesia. He has led workshops on covering sustainable development. Mr. Basorie can be reached at wariefdj@yahoo.com.
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Write a letter to the editor. Go to a press complaints office. Go to court. These are the three standard approaches in Indonesia for the public to respond to an objectionable news report.

Did a newspaper story annoy you? You were misquoted. The facts were not right. The story unjustifiably puts you in a bad light. Your good name has been injured. What can you do? First, you can use your right to reply. You write a letter to the paper’s editor explaining your grievance. If your point is well taken, a responsible editor will print your letter, won’t he?

The editor, however, does no such thing. You become adamant; you want your voice heard. You could contact a local media watch, a kind of media consumer’s advocate. It is not a law firm but an independent research center on media issues. Put your case to the media watch and it can raise the matter with the newspaper concerned and get the paper to print a response.

Failing that, inform the Press Council. Based on the 1999 Press Act, Indonesia’s Press Council (Dewan Pers) has functioned since 2000 as an independent press complaints office. It mediates public objections against the press.

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Mr. Gunawardene is a writer and journalist who blogs on media, society and development at http://movingimages.wordpress.com. He can be reached on alien@nalaka.org.
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The spectacular Beijing Olympics opening ceremony was watched live on television by over a billion people worldwide. One of its most memorable moments was when a little girl in a red dress sang “Ode to the Motherland” as China’s flag was paraded into Beijing’s National Stadium.

This single high profile performance turned Lin Miaoke, 9, into an instant celebrity in China. But within 48 hours, it was revealed that she was merely lip-synching to the voice of another girl.

Under pressure, Beijing games organizers admitted that the voice was actually of another girl, Yang Peiyi, 7. She was heard but never seen — simply because a high ranking Communist Party official had deemed her not “cute enough”.

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The author is a journalist based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The article tackles how journalists operate in heavily-controlled press societies such as Malaysia.
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On two different occasions this year, a leading English daily in Malaysia was caught in a dilemma—it did not know which way to sway. The top editorial leadership was unsure if the daily should swing towards the government-of-the day as it has always done, or to lean towards the “government-in-waiting”.

The first one became an option when the newsrooms waited for the general election results to come streaming in on March 8 this year.

Most journalists expected the ruling coalition National Front (Barisan Nasional) to win but with a reduced margin given the aggressiveness of the opposition parties this time around, primarily due to Anwar Ibrahim’s fiery speeches that were reverberating in the Internet. No one in their wildest moments ever thought that five out of 14 states would fall to the opposition—and that too, these would be the most progressive of the states. The opposition parties then had formed a loose coalition, and the de facto leader of this coalition was Anwar.

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Mr. Dixit is the author of Dateline Earth: Journalism as if the Planet Mattered, and the editor of the Nepali Timesnewspaper in Kathmandu.
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Worldwide, there is a blurring of the line between news and entertainment and an ambiguity about Internet-driven content. Does this change the role of journalism and of journalists?

Is there any point training college students in mass communication if they are going to be sucked up by a money-driven mass media vacuum cleaner? Does journalism expand the public space when anyone can be a reporter on the Internet, or does it fragment readership and erode credibility?

There are basic values like press freedom that need to be protected, of course. Most journalists take press freedom for granted, not realizing what they had until they lose it. Press freedom is like a rubber band, you have to stretch it to make it work. If the media doesn’t use its constitutionally-guaranteed rights, it usually atrophies.

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This article was first posted on the website http://www.asiantribune.com last May 27.
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Trial by media seems to have become the rule rather than the exception in Sri Lankan journalism these days.

There is no question that the press in a democratic society has the right to criticize governments, individuals or organizations on political, social or economic issues or terrorist-related activities. But do the media have the right to make one-sided, unsubstantiated charges of corruption, embezzlement or sexual misconduct against a clearly identified individual, giving that person no chance to defend himself?

Self-regulation on such matters appears to have totally failed as far as some newspapers here are concerned. This issue has again come to the limelight in the wake of a formal complaint lodged by the German Dharmadutha Society (GDS) this month with the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka against the Lakbima news. The complaint follows a news story by Ashwin Hemmathagama that appeared in the paper’s business page (FEB) on April 6, attacking by name the caretaker of a Sri Lankan-managed Buddhist Temple in Europe.

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Ms. De Jesus is the executive director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.
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A court battle over a restaurant review shows nothing if not the coming of age of the relative latecomer in the growing pages of lifestyle: the food writer or restaurant critic.

Lawyers and journalists in the UK and the US followed the case which began when a restaurant owner lodged a libel complaint in Northern Ireland against negative review of Goodfellas pizza restaurant in West Belfast. Written by restaurant critic, Caroline Workman, it was published in the Irish News in August 2000. According to a report on the case, Workman “had been unimpressed by pretty much everything she encountered. She deemed a chicken dish ‘inedible’ and a glass of Coca Cola she found to be flat, warm and watery.” She gave the restaurant one star out of five.

The jury decided in favor of CiarnanConvery, the owner of Goodfellas, awarding him 25,000 pounds ($50,000) in libel damages. The unprecedented decision rocked press rooms on both sides of the Atlantic, as everyone in the business of reviewing sensed the chilling effect the ruling would have beyond the circle of food critics. The Irish News challenged the decision, with legal luminaries on the offensive. In March this year, the appeals court reversed the decision, asserting reviews to be legitimate expression of fair comment and opinion.

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This article was first posted on The Jakarta Post last May 7. The author is a journalism instructor at the Dr. Soetomo Press Institute (LPDS) in Jakarta.
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May 3 is World Press Freedom Day, when journalists take stock of their work-linked concerns. One such concern relates to their professional conduct or lack of it. North Sumatra journalists recently discussed this issue as it relates to local reporting.

A madrasah or Islamic boarding school offers free tuition, with donors covering the school expenditures. However, a local newspaper charges the madrasah lets its pupils go hungry. The madrasah complains rightly the story is one-sided, as none of the school executives were interviewed.

Meanwhile, a weekly paper reports on a money pyramid scam in Medan that promised investors 60 percent monthly interest. After the fraudulent company, PT BMA, collapsed and its boss became a fugitive, the paper printed this headline: “Bos PT BMA Siluman Anjing?” (PT BMA Boss a Phantom Dog?) The story is accompanied with a line drawing of a menacing dog with a protruding tongue and set of sharp teeth.

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