EYE ON ETHICS

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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Eye on Ethics: Asia Media Forum is looking for reports, essays, commentaries, and/or analyses on the unique ethical issues that confront journalism in Asia—a region in turmoil and change as well as stability and progress.

The online Eye on Ethics newsletter is a resource tool and discussion forum on ethical issues in journalism, specifically those that involve the particularities of journalism practice in Asia, and which can provide insights into how ethical dilemmas can be or are being addressed by professionals working in the diverse cultural, political, and economic conditions in the region.

Those interested in writing for Eye on Ethics should e-mail staff@cmfr-phil.org or call (+63 2) 840-0903. The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) offers a modest honorarium of US$100 to US$250 for accepted contributions.

Edited by CMFR Deputy Director and PJR Reports editor Luis V. Teodoro, Eye on Ethics is a joint project of the CMFR and Asia Media Forum.

Mr. Torres is the chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. He is also the editor in chief of the online news magazine GMANews.TV.
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There is a growing consensus among journalists and media practitioners around the world that “unethical practice” is slowly killing journalism. The threat has become so serious that the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) last year launched an “Ethical Journalism Initiative.”

The initiative is supposed to be journalism’s response to the challenges the craft faces – the increasing polarization around the globe, the clamor for change in a number of countries on the fringes of development, war and terrorism.

Amid these developments – racial, religious, cultural and political conflicts that most of the time lead to shooting wars – are the media, which most of the time are used by partisan interests to deceive, sow falsehood and speculation, and provoke misunderstanding, hatred and violence.

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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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Mr. Conde is a journalist based in Manila. He is a correspondent for The New York Times and International Herald Tribune. This is a slightly edited version of a paper Mr. Conde delivered at a media forum on torture last June 25, organized by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and the non-government groups International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims, International Federation for Human Rights, and Balay Rehabilitation Center.
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Five years ago, I wrote a story about a Muslim teenager who was imprisoned in General Santos City for allegedly being a terrorist. The boy showed signs – bruises, mainly – that he was tortured by whoever captured him.

Today, I can’t even recall the name of the teenager. I do remember this, however: I never bothered to check back to see what had happened to him.

He was, after all, just a story.

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Mr. Dura is a staffwriter for the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility.
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Would it have improved the prospects for peace negotiations between the bandit group and the government if ABS-CBN’s Ces Drilon had obtained and aired that exclusive interview with the new leaders of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) she said she was after? Should peace negotiations between a police problem like the ASG and the government be on the national agenda at all?

Both questions are crucial to the main ethical issue, unremarked by many commentators, that was at the heart of the Ces Drilon episode. Mostly dismissed as a spent force and no more a terrorist organization than a common kidnap for ransom gang operating in Manila would be, any interview with ASG leaders aired over a major network would have re-conferred on it the status it once had as a supposedly separatist rebel group, thus putting it on the same level as formations with clear political aims like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The capacity to confer legitimacy and status is inherent in the mass media.

The ASG gained notoriety in the late 1990s as a supposedly terrorist organization with its bombing, assassination and kidnap for ransom operations. Eventually, however, its lack of any clear political aim made it clear that it doesn’t even qualify as a terrorist group, the definition of which includes having a political program. It does qualify, however, as a group that uses terrorist methods for non-political aims.

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