[eccr] National Public Radio Ombudsman - Ethics Guide

>Guide is at:
>http://www.cpb.org/radio/ethicsguide/
>
>
>------- Forwarded message follows -------
>
>January 20, 2004
>
>Why an Ethics Guide for Public Radio?
>
>By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
>Ombudsman
>National Public Radio
>
>For more than a year, Professor Al Stavitsky, associate dean of
>journalism at the University of Oregon, and I have been writing and
>editing an ethics guide. Thanks to the support of the Corporation for
>Public Broadcasting, it is finally public. It's called Independence
>and Integrity II: An Updated Ethics Guide for Public Radio
>Journalism.
>
>It deals with some of the most important ethical issues that confront
>public radio journalism on a daily basis -- questions about how to
>deal with and evaluate sources, correcting errors, reporting vs.
>punditry, relations with public radio underwriters and funders among
>other issues. There are links to other journalistic organizations and
>their approach to ethical practices. There are declarations of intent
>as well as "how-to" approaches for ethical decision-making in a daily
>news situation.
>
>"Why an Ethics Guide Now?"
>
>Some of the best thinkers on ethics in public radio -- both inside
>the system and in academia -- contributed to this guide. But at
>various stages in its evolution, we were still asked why public radio
>needs an ethics guide at all. Some listeners (and some public radio
>journalists) have told us of their surprise that such a document is
>necessary. Was it because public radio standards had fallen? Or was
>it because we were coming under increased scrutiny by activists?
>
>Public radio journalism, we were told, always seems to want to do the
>right thing, so codifying our values seems unnecessary. Still others
>were concerned that an ethics guide would be overly restrictive to
>journalists, their journalism and their First Amendment rights.
>Public perceptions of journalistic standards are fairly low due to
>the spate of recent high-profile journalistic scandals and
>embarrassments. In contrast, public radio still enjoys a high level
>of credibility according to recent polls.
>
>An ethics guide that is widely available can only reinforce that
>credibility. For the most part, the public radio community responded
>positively and enthusiastically to the notion of an updated guide. We
>were delighted by the willingness with which journalists and managers
>approached some of the most difficult issues. We believe that at a
>time when more people are relying on public radio, we need to be
>absolutely clear among ourselves and with our listeners about what
>guides us. Moreover, everyone who works for public radio or listens
>to public radio should know precisely what we stand for. Independence
>and Integrity (1995) Other journalists did not know that we already
>had an ethics guide. Others assumed that like many of these
>documents, it was sitting unopened on a manager's dusty shelf. In
>fact, the original document is called Independence and Integrity, and
>is now almost 10 years old. It is an excellent document, and it
>informed our writing of the new version. It served the public radio
>community well, but in some important ways, it has been rendered
>obsolete by the enormous growth in public radio and by the rapid
>changes in technology since the mid-'90s. It was a document that was
>often inaccessible to many in public radio and to the listeners.
>Putting the new version on the Web site will make this one much more
>available. This updated version addresses some of those changes,
>especially in light of the rise of the Internet as a source of
>information. Having an up-to-date ethics guide will accomplish two
>things at once, in my opinion: establish public radio's obligations
>and listener expectations.
>
>Public Radio's Obligations
>
>First there are the internal reasons for a guide: journalists should
>know the context of their journalism must be based on a deeply
>ethical approach to reporting and to programs. One of the founders of
>public radio is Bill Siemering, who is still active and true to the
>finest traditions of ethical journalism. He has written that in
>public radio our first and primary obligation is to the individual
>listener. That understanding must underscore and inform everything
>else that we do. But as other journalistic organizations have
>discovered to their dismay, having an ethics guide is no guarantee
>that ethical journalism will always be practiced. The value of a
>document such as this one is that it needs to be read, argued over
>and even re-written. An ethics guide is always a work in progress.
>
>Listeners' Expectations of Public Radio
>
>The second reason for having an ethics guide is to help the listeners
>understand what we do. This guide should give the listeners a way of
>assessing whether we have been true to our own values. As ombudsman,
>I know that the public radio listeners have very high expectations of
>NPR and public radio. They may not commend us when the job is done
>correctly; that is the listeners' minimum expectation. They are quick
>to voice their disappointment. If public radio is to continue to
>serve the listeners, then the publication of this ethics guide will,
>I hope, contribute to that goal of service. I hope that listeners and
>members of the public radio community will read it and let us know if
>this ethics guide meets your expectations of public radio.
>
>Listeners can contact me at 202-513-3245 or by e-mail at
>(ombudsman /at/ npr.org).
>
>Jeffrey Dvorkin
>NPR Ombudsman
>
>Guide is at: http://www.cpb.org/radio/ethicsguide/
>
>------- End of forwarded message -------

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