cime media ethics survey 2011 report

8/3/2019 CIME Media Ethics Survey 2011 Report

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Media Ethics Survey 2011

by the Center for International Media Ethics (CIME)

Prepared by CIME Staff

Csilla Szab and Tom Nunn

June 2011
http://www.cimethics.org/http://www.cimethics.org/


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2011 CIME Center for International Media Ethics 1

www.cimethics.org

Table of ContentsThe Center for International Media Ethics .............................................................................................. 2

Objectives of the survey .......................................................................................................................... 2

Scope of the research .............................................................................................................................. 2

Location of respondents ...................................................................................................................... 3

Profession of respondents .................................................................................................................. 4

Age of respondents ............................................................................................................................. 4

Personal experience ................................................................................................................................ 5

Codes of Ethics .................................................................................................................................... 5

Ethical Difficulties ................................................................................................................................ 6

Ethical Conduct .................................................................................................................................... 6

Journalism ethics in general .................................................................................................................... 7

Common Code of Ethics ...................................................................................................................... 7

Ethical Journalism Standards ............................................................................................................... 8

Ethical Journalism Problems.................................................................................................................... 9

Reasons for ethical problems in the media ....................................................................................... 10

Digital Media ..................................................................................................................................... 11

Solutions for media ethics problems ..................................................................................................... 11

Media Ethics Education ..................................................................................................................... 12

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 13

Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 14

Appendix ................................................................................................................................................ 15

Appendix 1 - Reasons for unethical journalism by continent ........................................................... 15

Appendix 2 Suggestions for improving media ethics ..................................................................... 18

Appendix 3 Usefulness of media ethics training ............................................................................ 20

Appendix 4 - Media Ethics Survey by the Center for International Media Ethics (CIME) .............. 20


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The Center for International Media Ethics

The Center for International Media Ethics (CIME) encourages each journalist to take on a proactive

role in defining the ethical practices of their profession through the choices and decisions made each

day on the job. Through a combination of training programs, international forums, continuously

improving research and communications materials and an expanding network of media

professionals, CIME serves as an international platform for dialogue and collaboration on issues

related to global media ethics. Our driving emphasis is thatjournalists together have the power to

formulate and enforce a tacit code of ethics as a status quo of their profession.

Civil society and socio-economic conditions benefit by having a public that is educated through

quality reporting. Through promotion of our J-Ethinomics concept, a pragmatic incentive to practice

responsible journalism, CIME aims to enable production of news that serves the public interest,

creates public trust, and spurs demand for reliable media content.

Objectives of the survey

The questionnaire aims to obtain a general impression of how media professionals themselves see

their position at work and the ethical standards of media in their country.

The study intends to discover how media ethics is represented across the world. Besides revealing

the differences between regions of the world in terms of their respect for media ethics, the survey

also tackles what is needed to improve ethical standards amongst journalists and media

professionals.

CIME strives to make journalists aware of the importance of their work and of the standards they

represent to the broader public. We believe that all media professionals have the potential to realise

that ethical reporting is beneficial for them in the long term in that it enables gaining the

appreciation and trust of readers.

Scope of the research

The survey was available during May and part of June 2011 and CIME is proud to have obtained 127

answers from media professionals from 46 countries worldwide. Media workers from Africa, Asia,

North America, Latin America, Europe and Australasia expressed their opinion on the hot topic of

todays press: media ethics. A survey of 127 entries cannot provide a completely accurate

representation of the global picture due to the small size of the sample. The figures and information

presented in this report can, however, provide information about the different opinions that media

professionals throughout the world hold with regard to media ethics.

The following map illustrates the scope of the survey, countries coloured green were represented by

the respondents.


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Figure 1. Map of countries participating in the CIME Media Ethics Survey 2011

Location of respondents

The majority of the respondents were from the North American continent and most of them from

the United States of America (82% of all American answers were from the USA). Only 5% of all replies

came from Latin-America. From Asia, most answers arrived from Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Europe

the Eastern European countries were represented in significant numbers, for example from Hungary

and Romania, thanks to the 2011 CIME Forum which took place in Hungary and therefore created astrong network of Eastern European journalists interested in media ethics. Media professionals from

Australia, New Zealand and other islands in the Indian ocean also submitted their opinion in smaller

number, as well as African press employees.

Figure 2. Composition of replies by continent

8%

22%

9%

5%34%

22%

Composition of replies by continent

Africa Asia Australasia Latin America North America Europe


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Profession of respondents

The replies arrived from a diverse group encompassing journalists, editors, columnists, reporters,

journalism students and professors, writers, photographers, filmmakers and media specialists

including bloggers, consultants, communication experts and members of media organisations. We do

not have data from staff of radio stations.

Figure 3. Profession of respondents

Age of respondents

Overall, media workers in the 25-34 age group were represented in the highest numbers making up

almost 1/3 of total participants. Nevertheless, most of the answers arrived from professionals above

age 35 and the least replies came from journalists below age 24.

Figure 4. Age of respondents

0 10 20 30 40 50

Photographer

Columnist

Professor

Reporter

Student

Writer

Other media professional

Editor/Editor in chief

Journalist

Number of people

Profession of respondents

12%

28%

20%

20%

20%

Age of respondents

18-24

25-34

35-44

45-55

55+


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Personal experience

We asked the respondents about their own experience at work in relation to media ethics.

Codes of EthicsIt is important for press organisations, news agencies, journalist associations or unions to have

written rules for their members and employees to serve as a guide in their work. A written and

approved code of ethics is the first step to the improvement of journalism practices. Fortunately the

majority of the journalists participating in the survey stated that their employer has a code of ethics

and they follow it. However, as the red columns in figure 5 below show, some of them confessed that

even though their employer has an ethics code they do not follow it. It is not enough to have rules

written, staff must also be made aware of them and it must be made obligatory that they follow the

rules. It can be considered as the small print in a contract so that even if one does not read it one still

needs to comply with them. According to the survey the Australian and African region performed the

best as none were aware of their employers code of ethics said that they do not follow it.

Figure 5 shows that, unfortunately, the portion of employers who do not have code of ethics is high.

In the case of Asia, Africa, Latin America and even Europe, only around half of the employers have a

code of ethics. Naturally, not every company, organisation or institution need to create their own

rules as they can simply adapt the code of ethics or the rules of the most relevant and respected

journalist associations in their region or country.

Nevertheless, one third of the respondents from Europe, Asia and the Australian region had no

information about the existence of an ethics code at their workplace. The employer and the

employee are both responsible for this. The employer should make it clear when contracting a

journalist what the rules and restrcitions of the job are. At the same time, individual journalism

professionals should ask for such information for their own sake.

Figure 5. Code of ethics of the employer

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Code of ethics of the employer

Employer has code of

ethics and the employee

knows it

Employer has code ofethics but the employee

doesn't know it

Employer doesn't have

code of ethics

Employee doesn't know if

employer has code of

ethics


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It is interesting to see that 50% of the people said overall their employer has a code of ethics and

they know it and when we asked them if they find it difficult to follow the ethical rules, 75% of the

people answered no. For the 25% whose employers dont have code of ethics: which rules do they

follow? It could be a bigger media organisation or journalist unions ethics code or they might not

follow any particular written code but only their common sense.

Ethical Difficulties

One in four people find following ethical rules difficult: this is a significant number. This difficulty was

seen most in Asian countries such as Pakistan or Bangladesh where almost half of the participants

found difficulty in following ethical rules. In Europe and America, it is close to of the respondents.

Surprisingly, when we asked how many of them have ever faced an ethical dilemma at work, the

Asian countries gave the lowest number. This means that journalists in Asian countries face less

ethical dilemmas at their workplace but find that these dilemmas are extremely difficult to navigate

ethically. On the other hand in the Australian region, journalists had already found themselves in an

ethically uncomfortable situation but they still believe it was not difficult to deal with. North

American and European countries are approximately on the same level of difficulty when facing

ethical questions while on the contrary to their Northern counterparts, most of the respondents

from Latin America consider following ethical standards difficult. In Africa, respondents did not find

much difficulty with staying ethical when faced with an ethical dilemma.

Figure 6. Ethical difficulty at work

Ethical Conduct

Most of our survey participants have already faced dilemmas and difficulties during their work.

Having faced these dilemmas, 60% said they have never committed any unethical act at work while

40% have done so. Approximately the same proportion had published or broadcasted unethically due

to external or internal pressure which can be pressure from the publisher, editor due to theeconomic and strategic interest of the company to publish news that will sell, or pressure from

Asia

Latin America

North America

Europe

Africa

Australasia

43%

43%

21%

21%

10%

9%

71%

86%

86%

89%

80%

100%

Ethical difficulty at work

Faced ethical dilemma Difficult keeping ethical rules


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external actors such as government, concerned stakeholders, companies, local or regional people or

organizations in power.

This research shows that journalists from Asia, Africa and the Australian region did behave

unethically in the largest proportion with more than half behaving unethically. While in the American

continent around one in three (34%) behaved unethically. The best results came from Europe where29% admitted to having done something that did not comply with ethical rules. This could be

because of the different conditions available in developing countries and in the developed world. For

example in less economically developed countries, journalists might be under more pressure from

their government or from their economic situation. News agencies might require reporters to

sensationalize stories more often in order to maintain sales figures. In the more developed countries

the average education level is usually higher with a greater emphasis on ethical practices and the

public may also demand more accurate and ethically acceptable reporting.

Most respondents blamed this unethical behaviour on others rather than their own unethical

decision making. People claimed to publish ethically wrong material due to internal pressure fromtheir editor or the company they work for. They also claimed they acted unethically due to external

pressure from those with a stake in the story e.g. people involved in the story or those who could be

effected negatively from the publication of the article. This placement of the blame away from the

journalists own decision-making potentially shows that at the moment training is not appropriately

targeted. It may be that those in charge of running newspapers e.g editors, publishers who should

recieve ethical training as they obviously at the moment are not acknowledging the benefits of

ethical journalism. If they did, they would not exert this pressure.

Journalism ethics in general

As well as inquiring about their personal experiences, we asked the journalists opinion about media

ethics in their country in general, the standards among journalists and media professionals.

Common Code of Ethics

More than half of the respondents stated there is a common code of ethics in their country.

However, many of them also said that there is not a common ethics code. This was the case in

Pakistan, Iraq, India, Argentina, Paraguay, Canada, the United States of America, New Zealand,

Mauritius, Sudan, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine and Greece. 15% of all respondents confessedthat they do not know whether there is a common code of ethics in their country. It would be

interesting to examine the question in more depth as there might be a common code of ethics that

people might not know about or which is not accepted by all media entities and organisations but

still acknowledged by the majority of the press.

Nevertheless, the results show how different the context is for media professionals from country to

country, or continent to continent. There is a wide variety of different rules and in some countries

journalists do not have any ethical guidelines at all but must follow their own judgements. A

commonly accepted and widely used united code of ethics would help create cohesion among media

workers and increase the quality of journalism in a given region or country. Journalist associationsand news agencies should cooperate and make their members and employees aware of the


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established code of journalism and media ethics. The confusion among journalists is clear given that

we received conflicting answers from the same countries. For example, in the USA, Hungary and

Romania, there were a few people stating there is no common code of ethics while others said there

is. This clearly shows a greater effort is needed to make journalists aware of the codes of ethics that

are present within their countries.

Figure 7. Common code of ethics by country

Ethical Journalism StandardsWhen we asked the participants to grade the journalism standards in their country, some surprising

results occured. Only Australian journalists said that the level of ethical journalism is very good and

everybody follows ethical practices. While, for example media people from The Philippines were

more pessimistic and said that almost nobody follows ethical rules. In Europe, America and Africa the

majority rated their countries ethical standards as medium, that is to say half of the journalists

comply with ethical regulations and many of them gave optimistic answer by stating the majority of

the press workers work ethically. In contrast, the result from Asia were the least promising as most of

the answers said the level of ethical reporting is low, very few people follow some kind of rules and

14% of the Asian replies even said the situation is very bad with almost none following ethical rules.

These latter answers were mostly from Pakistan and Iraq.

In Europe, Ukraine and Bosnia & Herzegovina were graded as "very bad". In Africa, Liberia got this

classification. Among the Latin American answers nobody placed journalism standards at either a

very good or very bad level: they stayed at good, medium and low classifications.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Common code of ethics by country

Common code of ethics

No common code

Doesn't know


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Figure 8. Ethical journalism standards

Ethical Journalism Problems

When asked what the respondents considered to be unethical practices occuring within their country

specifically, there was very little difference globally. A major worry for people across the globe was

the common practice of printing stories that favour commercial interests or are bought by certainorganisations. These worries were held by respondents from every continent. Journalists from

Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa and the USA. This

shows that this is truly a global problem and this may be exacerbated by the recent global recession

with newspapers casting ethical issues aside in order to make money. Editors are perhaps

disregarding the fact that building trust in their readership through ethical reporting could actually be

a more sound investment, albeit visible over the long term.

A potentially connected worry is that reporters do not research stories as effectively as they should.

There is a global fear about journalists relying on press releases and not researching stories beyond

these press releases. This complaint was raised by journalists from countries as wide ranging as theUK, the USA, Liberia and Pakistan. This may be due to journalists cutting corners due to time

constraints, laziness or a lack of resources. There are also many fears about inaccurate reporting,

potentially for these very reasons.

There are also problems with politically biased reporting and censorship for political reasons.

Another worry was the way in which the media in their country was owned and how this monopoly

of ownership among a small number of people could lead to ethical problems. A further concern was

the publishing of information that should be confidential such as personal information about victims

or those who were the victims of crimes.

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Africa

Asia

Latin America

North America

Australasia

Europe

Ethical journalism standards

Very good

Good

Medium

Low

Very bad


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Reasons for ethical problems in the media

Why do journalists behave unethically? What makes them ignore ethical rules and considerations?

We asked the participants of the survey about their opinion and depending on their continent they

named different dominating reasons for their unethical behaviour. (see diagrams in appendix 1)

In Australasia and the nearby islands of the Indian ocean, the majority (64%) do not think it is

important to keep journalism ethical and more than half of them (55%) said that journalists would

lose their job if they strictly follow ethics at work. One third of them also thinks that people just

simply do not pay enough attention to ethics in the media and that is also a reason why they perform

unethical acts. In a few cases it is because they do not know what ethical rules are. Some stated that

corruption is not uncommon in the area and often publishing a story that will sell well is more

important than the related consequences and the rights of others.

To contrast this, in Africa most of the respondents said the reason that journalists behave unethically

is due to a negligent attitude toward media ethics and ignorance of ethics. They do not consider it

important to keep the media ethical. Not knowing the ethical rules is also a common reason for

journalists to ignore them and not apply them. One third blamed the absence of a common code of

ethics for unethical journalism in the country and the same amount thinks that there is a potetial risk

of losing ones job if they stick to ethical practises. Low salaries are also mentioned among reasons

for ignoring ethics in Africa since underpaid employees are not motivated to strive for quality work

and publishing with less care about ethics requires less energy from them.

Respondents from the Asian countries claimed that journalists simply do not consider media ethics

important and also blamed the lack of commonly accepted and acknowledged code of ethics as the

main reasons for bad practices. Lack of attention is also among the top causes of unethical media.

One third of the respondents from Asia mentioned the risk of losing ones job. Publishing an ethically

written story would not pay enough according to some replies and the external pressure from the

government was also mentioned in the case of Pakistan.

Most of the Latin American journalists are afraid of losing their jobs according to the survey

respondents from the region. Media workers pay little attention to ethical rules and they are also not

aware of all the rules they are supposed to follow when reporting and broadcasting.

In NorthAmerica, negligence was one of the most dominant reasons for bad ethical standards in the

media. If journalists paid more attention to what and how they publish or broadcast, media ethics

could be easily improved as not knowing the rules or a lack of code of ethics was not a widelymentioned reason. We can assume that the knowledge and availability of guidelines are there and it

is only due to the journalists lack of attention to them that they are not put into practice. External

pressure from business or government were both mentioned. It was also suggested that journalists

prefer sensationalism and state their opinion rather than reporting accuarately with an objective

approach.

Finally, according to Europeansthe risk of losing ones job is the strongest reason for ignoring ethics

at work. Considering ethics important is not the most common view among European journalists and

lack of attention to the matter is also a reason for the lower ethical standards. Pressure for good

sales and the need to comply with politics was also mentioned.


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Digital Media

When talking about the reasons, we must not forget the modern age we live in and the popularity of

the digital media that has opened a lot of new avenues for publishing and broadcasting news and

information. Most of our journalists think that digital media has had a negative impact on media

ethics especially in North America (77%) and Europe (64%), where the modern technology and new

media are more advanced and available. In Africa, the media workers see digital media as a new and

good tool and 40% of the respondents claim it has a good effect on journalism ethic standards. To

determine why exactly they consider the evolution of digital media positive, futher investigation

would be needed. One in five respondents globally think that digital media does not have an impact

on ethical journalism practices. Three out of the seven Latin American respondents did not have an

opinion about the impact of digital media which was the highest portion among all regions.

The overall conclusion is that the majority of journalists themselves think that new media has a

negative effect on journalism, as journalists might forget that the same rules apply for the printed

press and the online press.

Figure 9. Impact of digital media

Solutions for media ethics problems

It is obvious from the responses, that there are problems with media ethics throughout the world

and the media workers themselves are aware of them.

We asked our respondents what they think the solution could be. More than half of them support

the idea of offering more media ethics training for journalists, as education is the founding stone of

ones behaviour and professional attitude. This was approximately the same in every continent ,

which shows that there is a need for further training for media people regardless of their physical

location.

Asia

Africa

Latin America

North America

Australasia

Europe

25%

40%

29%

7%

27%

14%

18%

20%

14%

9%

27%

21%

50%

40%

14%

77%

45%

64%

7%

43%

7%

Impact of digital media

Better ethics No change Worse ethics Doesn't know


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The second most popular suggestion with 46% was that if everyone were made aware of how to

differentiate between "good" and "bad" practices it could solve many current media ethics problems.

Asia, America and the Australian region were in favor of this alternative, however from Africa only

20% thought this could actually work. Again, this is a question of education and awareness which

might be improved via increased training.

As several journalists did not know if their employer had a code of ethics and many of them stated

their employer does not have any ethics code, it is also a common belief that establishing a widely

accepted and acknowledged code of ethics could improve the ethical standards of the media. The

Australasian and North American countries supported this idea the most, while Africans again did not

see it as an effective way of improving ethics.

As a last resort, there is always the tool of punishing or fining those who do not follow ethical rules.

Nevertheless, this was the least popular solution for solving media ethics problems, probably due to

the difficulty in many cases of assessing whether a decision has been ethical. Surprisingly African and

European respondents preferred this option while nobody from Australasia and its region wouldsuggest the idea of punishment.

Figure 10. How to improve media ethics

Media Ethics Education

If there were more media ethics education for journalists, it would actually cover the two most

recommended solutions, providing training and also raising awareness on how to differentiate

between ethical and unethical practices. The respondents of the survey also thought that it would be

a good idea: a large majority in Europe, America, Africa and Asia considered further education as

definitely useful. A few of them saw potential but were not completely certain and only a very small

number think it would not change journalists behaviour if they were better trained in ethics. (see

diagram in appendix 3.)

Punishing those who behave unethically

Accepting a common code of ethics

If everyone could differentiate between

ethical and unethical practices

Providing more media ethics training for

journalists

31%

35%

46%

61%

How to improve media ethics


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It was found that 46% of respondents have already taken some training in media ethics, most from

the American or African continent. This leaves 54% who have not taken any kind of ethics related

journalism training. This impressive result can be due to the fact that the respondents were primarily

from the professional network of the Center for International Media Ethics and this network consist

of professionals involved in media ethics issues and training and their networks. In Asian countries,

one third have heard about media ethics training and another third have never heard the training

exists. Surprisingly the respondents from Europe had the highest level of ignorance about media

ethics training (36%).

Figure 11. Experience with media ethics training

The 46% of respondents who have taken journalism ethics courses said it was either during their

journalism university studies or organised by a local NGO. Nevertheless, most of those who have

never taken a media ethics training said they would take one and even some of those who have

already participated in one confessed they would not mind taking another training.

Conclusion

The results of this survery show that media professionals or at least those who responded to this

survey want to be ethical in their work. It may be suggested that those who take their time to do this

survey are obviously the ones who are interested in ethical issues. Worryingly, many respondents

reported that they had not acted ethically due to their lack of attention to ethical clear issues. This

obviously shows that the importance and pragmatic advantages of reporting ethically have not been

taught to these professionals in a way that has emphasized its significance and made a difference.

A lot of the problems with media ethics appear to arise due to constraints posed by a lack of

monetary resources. As previously mentioned, the biggest problem cited by many participants is

0%

20%

40%

60%

Respondents' media ethics education

Taken media ethics training

Heard about media ethics

training but haven't taken it

Never heard of media

ethics training


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reporting stories that are funded by those who will gain good publicity from the story. Others talk

about how the main reason that they would behave unethically is due to pressure from their editor

or company. This is more often than not driven by sales and again places ethical journalism below

making money in the priorities of editors and newspaper owners.

Additionally, what has been shown is the importance of a universal code of ethics. Many journalistsdo not have an ethical code that they follow and struggle to differentiate between good and bad

ethical practices. A universal code could be provided for all journalists to use as a reference for both

themselves and their editors providing guidelines on what needs to be adhered to in order to report

ethically.

Fundamentally, when the importance of ethical journalism is understood by media professionals, the

desire to report ethically exists. This can be facilitated by providing ethical guidelines that can be

followed throughout the world.

As an independent, international non-profit organization, the Center for International Media Ethicsworks directly with journalists and media organizations around the world, building incentive to

improve ethical media practices in their societies through a variety of activities, training

opportunities and materials. J-Ethinomics is the founding principle of journalism training at CIME.

Uniting the concepts of Ethics and Economics in the field of Journalism, it describes practices in

journalism that have an aim towards building trust, credibility, and accountability - values that are

the foundation of media ethics - and the impact of these values on media economics and socio-

economic development. It is based on the idea that the incorporation of ethical practices within

media organizations can serve as a practical strategy for media businesses to generate revenue.

Building trust in the audience is actually a better investment over the long term, compared to

succumbing to commercial pressures which might be financially helpful only in the shorter term. This

comes together with the basic tenet in business that the customers that sustain a for-profit business

financially are the long-term regular customers, not irregular or one-time customers. Further

research would need to be conducted to assess this question in the context of business models for

the media industry.

Recommendations

The importance of ethical journalism needs to be made clear to all media professionals. Thiscan be done through training, workshops and publications which would enhance all media

professionals understanding of why ethical journalism is so important.

A universal code of ethics should be established by journalists so that across the globe, alljournalism have some form of guidelines to adhere to. Different countries and cultures will

require certain country and culturally specific practices and so these guidelines should be

very general.

Editors and journalists should be given training in how to use this code of ethics in order toensure that all media actors comply with the standards. If possible, priority may be placed on

training Editors or others who are in charge of editorial decisions. This training should also

include the importance of the media to act ethically, including the importance of ethical

reporting as a long-term investment in sustaining readership.
http://www.cimethics.org/en/docs/JEthinomics_about.pdfhttp://www.cimethics.org/en/docs/JEthinomics_about.pdfhttp://www.cimethics.org/en/docs/JEthinomics_about.pdfhttp://www.cimethics.org/en/docs/JEthinomics_about.pdf


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Appendix

Appendix 1 - Reasons for unethical journalism by continent

No common

code of

ethics

They dont

know the

ethical rules

They dont

think it is

important to

keep

journalism

ethical

They would

lose theirjobs if they

follow ethics

strictly

Most of themdont pay

enough

attention to

media ethics

39%

25%

46%

36% 39%

Asia

No common

code of

ethics

They dont

know the

ethical rules

They dont

think it is

important to

keep

journalism

ethical

They would

lose their

jobs if they

follow ethics

strictly

Most of them

dont pay

enough

attention to

media ethics

30% 40% 40%

30%

50%

Africa


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No common

code of

ethics

They dont

know the

ethical rules

They dont

think it is

important to

keep

journalism

ethical

They would

lose their

jobs if they

follow ethics

strictly

Most of them

dont pay

enough

attention to

media ethics

18% 18%

36% 39%

29%

Europe

No common

code ofethics

They dont

know the

ethical rules

They dontthink it is

important to

keep

journalism

ethical

They would

lose their

jobs if they

follow ethics

strictly

Most of them

dont pay

enough

attention to

media ethics

0% 18%

64%55%

36%

Australasia


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No

common

code of

ethics

They dont

know the

ethical

rules

They dont

think it is

important

to keep

journalism

ethical

They would

lose their

jobs if they

follow

ethics

strictly

Most of

them dont

pay enough

attention to

media

ethics

29%

43%

29%

57%

43%

Latin America

No common

code ofethics

They dont

know the

ethical rules

They dontthink it is

important to

keep

journalism

ethical

They would

lose their

jobs if they

follow ethics

strictly

Most of them

dont pay

enough

attention to

media ethics

12% 14% 26% 28%42%

North America


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Appendix 2 Suggestions for improving media ethics

Europe

Australasia

Latin America

America

Africa

Asia

50%

64%

57%

60%

70%

68%

Providing more media ethics training

for journalists

Europe

Australasia

Latin America

America

Africa

Asia

39%

45%

57%

49%

20%

57%

If everyone could differentiate

between ethical and unethical

practices


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Europe

Australasia

Latin America

America

Africa

Asia

32%

45%

57%

37%

20%

32%

Accepting a common code of ethics

Europe

Australasia

Latin America

America

Africa

Asia

43%

0%

14%

30%

50%

29%

Punishing those who behave

unethically


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Appendix 3 Usefulness of media ethics training

Appendix 4 - Media Ethics Survey by the Center for International Media

Ethics (CIME)

This survey aims to reveal the differences between regions of the world in terms of their respect for

media ethics and also to tackle the needs for the improvement of ethical standards among

journalists. Answering the questions will not take more than 10 minutes and all your answers will be

used anonymously.

General questions

1. Which country are you from?

___________________

2. Which age group do you belong to?

18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-55, 55+3. What is your profession/job title?

Journalist, Editor, Reporter, Writer, Columnist, Student, Other

Personal experience

4. How often do you publish/broadcast articles or report news?

at least once a week

at least once every two weeks

at least once a month

less than once a month

5. Does your employer have a code of ethics and if yes, do you know it?

Yes he has one and I know itYes he has one but I dont know it

0%10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Would a media ethics training be

useful?

Yes

No

Maybe


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No, he doesnt have one

I dont know if he has one or not

6. Do you find it difficult to keep the ethical rules?

yes

no

7. Have you ever faced an ethical dilemma at work?yes

no

8. Have you ever knowingly or unknowingly behaved unethically at your job? (your answer will

be kept anonymous)

yes

no

9. Have you ever had to publish/broadcast a piece which was not fully ethical due to internal or

external pressure?

yes

no

10. In your opinion what is ethical journalism?____________________

Media Ethics in your country

11. What do you consider as unethical media practise in your country?

___________________

12. Is there a common code of ethics for journalists in your country?

Yes

No

I dont know

13. How would you rate the ethical standards among journalists in your country?

Very good, everyone follows ethical practices

Good, the majority follows ethical practices

Medium, half of the journalists follow ethical practices

Low, not many journalists follow ethical practices

Very bad, almost nobody follows ethical practices

14. Why, in your opinion, do journalists in your country perform their duties unethically? (you

may choose more than one answer)

There is no common code of ethics

They dont know the ethical rules

They dont think it is important to keep journalism ethical

They would lose their jobs if they follow ethics strictly

Most of them dont pay enough attention to media ethics

Other

15. What do you think of the impact that the increasing use of digital media has on media

ethics?

Better ethical standards

Worse ethical standards

No change

I don't know

Solution for media ethics problems16. How do you think ethical standards in journalism could be improved in your country?


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By accepting a common code of ethics

If everyone could differentiate between ethical and unethical practices

By punishing those who behave unethically

By providing more media ethics training for journalists

Other

17.Do you think a training on media ethics would help journalists understand the importance ofethical practices?

Yes

No

Maybe

18.Have you ever taken a Media Ethics training?Yes

No, but I have heard it exists

No, I have never heard there is training on Media Ethics

19. If yes, please specify who organised it:_______

20.If not, would you take a media ethics training?Yes

No

21. Please include any suggestions and/or comments that you might have about Media Ethics,

the survey or the Center for International Media Ethics.

______________________

Thank you for your time! Your contribution is highly appreciated!

cime media ethics survey 2011 report

Documents