Ethics

Download a PDF version of this post Panel members: Meredith Levine (CHAIR), Kathy English, Esther Enkin and Julian Sher A release goes out about a major new study linking increased reported cases of depression in young men to online gaming. A newsroom editor assigns a reporter with the command: “Get me a depressed gamer.” The reporter does indeed find a young man through connections, sends him a text identifying her and her news organization and requesting an interview. He agrees to tell his story. The day after the piece is posted online and sent out on Twitter, the young man [...]

Report of the Ethics Advisory Committee of The Canadian Association of Journalists February 4, 2011 PANEL MEMBERS | TIM CURRIE, CHAIR; BERT BRUSER, ELLEN VAN WAGENINGEN The Ethics Committee of the CAJ asked its Social Media Panel to propose guidelines for personal activity online. To study this issue, the panel looked at social media policies at major news organizations, the opinions of leading commentators and working reporters. THE ISSUE If you’re a reporter over 35, an employer likely told you not to post campaign signs on your lawn, attend public rallies or sport bumper stickers. The advice was meant to [...]

Panel report by Ken Regan (chair), Scott White, and Ivor Shapiro With research provided by Christine Dobby Approved by the Full Committee on October 27, 2010 If a practising journalist seeks public office, what effect does, can or should that choice have on his or her ability to continue or return to his or her work? This practical issue raises other, perhaps more philosophical, but no less relevant questions. The first is: Do journalists have a democratic right to participate in the public / political process, including running for office? There have been numerous examples of journalists seeking public office. [...]

Panel report by Kathy English (Chair), Tim Currie, Rod Link Approved by the Full Committee on October 27, 2010 The Ethics Committee of the CAJ asked the unpublishing panel to propose guidelines for correcting online content and handling public requests to “unpublish” -- a word media organizations have coined to describe requests to remove published digital content from websites and online archives. To study this issue, the panel relied heavily on a research paper English completed last year for the Associated Press Managing Editors’ Online Credibility Project, co-sponsored by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. That research “The longtail [...]

June 7, 2010 Social Media Panel Members: Bert Bruser, Tim Currie (Chair), Kirk LaPointe and Ellen Van Wageningen The Ethics Committee of the CAJ asked the Social Media panel to propose guidelines for re-tweeting, or forwarding through social networks, information that originates from followers. The issue applies mainly to using Twitter in breaking news situations but it also applies to re-posting information in other social networks such as Facebook. The primary issue is the risk of distributing untrue information. A related issue is the risk of seeming to endorse the opinions of others. To study this issue, the panel looked [...]

News Blackouts panel members:  Ethan Faber (Chair), Sadia Zamanm, Ivor Shapiro The Ethics Committee of the CAJ asked this panel to explore the following questions posed by the CAJ's Board: Under what circumstances should outlets agree to news blackouts like the one media agreed to on the Mellissa Fung kidnapping? What are the pitfalls, what questions should editors ask, is there a different standard that should be applied to journalists as opposed to other kidnap victims? To study this issue, the panel looked into several cases of abductions and hostage-taking involving journalists and non-journalists where blackouts were requested or not, [...]

This paper is under review to reflect developments in Canadian law since 2009.Significantly, Canada now has a 'shield law' that applies to journalists country-wide. See the 2017 Journalistic Sources Protection Act From: CAJ Ethics Committee Re:  Protection of Sources  November 10, 2009 The Board’s referral: How far should reporters go to protect their sources and are there any cases in which it is acceptable or morally advisable to reveal a source? For example, thinking of the Maher Arar case and possibly the Charkaoui case that the Montreal Gazette is involved in, if CSIS or the RCMP or [...]

"Problems arise when editors publish material that offends powerful individuals or groups, but that’s exactly why editorial independence is needed. Journals should be on the side of the powerless not the powerful, the governed not the governors. If readers once hear that important, relevant, and well argued articles are being suppressed or that articles are published simply to fulfill hidden political agendas, then the credibility of the publication collapses — and everybody loses.” British Medical Journal, 2004   PREAMBLE In recent years, the credibility of print, broadcast and online journalists has been eroded by frequent accounts of news stories spiked [...]