Draft Code on Press Ethics: Public'

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                         Public?s Right to Know

By: Madhu Kishwar

    The press was meant not just to inform, nor just to serve as a forum
for debate, but also to bring an independent scrutiny to bear on the
forces of power in the society, including the conduct of official power
at all levels of government.

A government official?s assertion that information requested is
confidential or secret and for some reason cannot be made publicly
available remains merely a claim. The official involved must justify
such a claim under carefully enacted proper legislation that guarantees
journalists their constitutional freedom of the press and due process
rights to dispute government?s claims and decide to publish such
information.

The public?s right to know about matters of importance is paramount, and
the press should fight vigorously for public access to news of
government, public organizations and private businesses through open
meetings and open records; journalists should make constant efforts to
make sure that the public?s business is conducted in public, and that
public records are open to public inspection. In this regard, the press
shall make all necessary efforts to repeal the Official Secrets Act, and
help to defeat all related laws, procedures, and informal arrangements.
Public and private corporations that claim protection from public
scrutiny should be required to demonstrate that the information sought
is not relevant to the public?s right to know.

Fairness

News sources should be disclosed unless those who refuse to permit the
disclosure provide a clear and legitimate reason not to do so. When it
is necessary to protect the confidentiality of a source the reason cited
must be sound. Before any information is accepted without full
attribution, reporters must make very reasonable effort to get it on the
record. If that is not possible, reporters should consider seeking the
information elsewhere. If that in turn is not possible, reporters should
request an on-the-record reason for restricting the source?s identity
and should include the reason in the story. In any case, some kind of
identification of the source without breaching confidentiality is almost
always possible ? by department or by position, for example ? and should
be reported.

The news media should not communicate official or unofficial charges
affecting some group?s or some person?s reputation or moral character
without giving the accused a real chance to reply.

Groups or persons publicly accused should be given the earliest
opportunity to respond; it is preferable that their response should be
included in the initial news item. Any person, group or organization
whose reputation is attacked is entitled to simultaneous rebuttal.

The anonymous quote, especially in stories involving controversial
issues, is to be avoided, except in those cases when the reasons for
concealing the identity of a source are completely justifiable and
manifestly clear to the reader.

News reports should be free of opinion or bias and represent all sides
of an issue.

Journalists should be accountable to the public for their reports, and
the public should be encouraged to voice its grievances against the
media. Open dialogue with readers, viewers, and listeners should be
fostered, for the reader has the right to a voice as much as any of the
professionals. The press should recognize and respect the right of the
public to comment on public issues or material appearing in its pages.
All media should provide a regular section for such commentary or
correction. The search for opposing views must be routine. Comment from
persons accused or challenged in stories must be included.

The motives of those who press their views upon us must routinely be
examined; it must be recognized that these motives can be noble and
ignoble, obvious and devious.

In order to be fair to the various people taking sides on an issue, it
is necessary to present simultaneously and give similar prominence to
all important sides of an issue in the same article. For example, it is
acceptable to quote someone giving an anti-Muslim statement provided
that, in the same article, the journalist also interviews responsible
people who are prepared to present information that might contradict the
accusation.

Journalists covering communal riots should insist that government and
police officials provide the public with accurate and timely information
on how many people were killed or injured as well as estimates of the
extent of damage to homes, businesses and other property, along with
identifying information such as victims? gender, age, occupation and
community. At the same time as the press monitors the government?s
estimates, they should conduct their own independent inquiry into the
accuracy of this information. The press should not deliberately or
inadvertently obscure the actual situation by using vague statements in
a mistaken attempt to comply with unacceptable restrictions. For
example, journalists should not publish articles that are subject to
misinterpretation due to lack of specificity, such as ?one community
attacked the other;? or, ?the businesses of one community were destroyed
by the other.?

Fairness results from a few simple practices:
- No story is fair if it omits facts of major importance or
significance. So fairness includes completeness.
- No story is fair if it includes essentially irrelevant information at
the expense of significant facts. So fairness includes relevance.
- No story is fair if it consciously or unconsciously misleads or even
deceives the reader. So fairness includes honesty.
- No story is fair if reporters hide their biases or emotions behind
such subtly pejorative words as ?refused?, ?despite? and ?admit?. So
fairness requires straightforwardness.

Accuracy

Significant errors of fact, as well as errors of omission, should be
corrected promptly and prominently. There is no excuse for failure to
check a fact or allegation. It is impossible to avoid all error; it is
easy to correct errors.

The newspaper should background, with the facts, public statements that
it knows to be inaccurate or misleading.

So-called news communications from private sources should not be
published or broadcast without substantiation of their claims to news
value.

Newspaper headlines should be fully warranted by the contents of the
articles they accompany. Photographs and telecasts should give an
accurate picture of an event and not highlight a minor incident out of
context.

Publishing news releases without independent confirmation or careful
commentary on the possible inaccuracies and/ or limitations in the
information provided and/or the sources, is not acceptable.

Publishing legalese and other internal organizational jargons without
digesting the material and clarifying the events described to enable the
general reader to follow and comprehend what is written is unacceptable
journalism.

Journalists should not use a government or private press release as the
definitive or sole source of information on an event or issue. Where
provided, news releases should be identified in the news story as the
source for whatever the journalist derives from them in reporting on any
particular event or issue and comments should be made on the possible
limitations of the information that result from the use of this source.

Where it is at all possible, information obtained from a source should
be crosschecked and conflicting or supportive information presented
simultaneously with the source?s version. When it is not possible for
the journalist to crosscheck, he should explicitly not in his report
that it was not possible to obtain information that confirms or denies
the story.

Journalists should insist on their right to access to the news where it
is being made; they should not print any government handouts from any
areas or in any situations where the government does not allow them
access. In cases where the government has provided some claim it
considers legitimate to restrict access journalists should use all
reasonable methods to insist on access. If, despite all reasonable
efforts of the press, access is still denied, journalists should only
identify the government information as a handout and if they publish it
do so with a preface indicating they cannot confirm the information
given them because they were refused access.

Responsibility and Opinion

Reporters should be given a byline for each and every story they write
or contribute to so that someone besides the editor shares both credit
and responsibility.

Articles that contain opinion or personal interpretation should be
clearly identified as such. Sound practice indicates a clear distinction
between news reports and expressions of opinion. Special articles or
presentations devoted to advocacy or the writer?s own conclusions,
analyses and interpretations should be prominently labeled as such, and
kept distinct from news coverage.

The separation of news columns from the editorial pages and the opinion
pages should be solemn and complete. This separation is intended to
serve the reader, who is entitled to the facts in the news columns and
to opinions on the editorial and opinion pages. But nothing in this
separation of function and powers is intended to eliminate from the news
columns honest, in-depth reporting, or analysis, or commentary, when
such departures from strictly factual reporting are plainly labeled.

Avoiding Conflicts of Interest

Journalists should pay their own way. They should accept no gifts from
news sources. Journalists must avoid impropriety as well as any conflict
of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest. They should
neither accept anything nor pursue any activity that might compromise or
seem to compromise their integrity.

Advertisements should be clearly separated from news items.

The newspaper should not give favoured news treatment to advertisers or
special interest groups. It should report matters regarding itself or
its personnel with the same vigour and candour as it would other
institutions or individuals.

The newspaper and its staff should be free of obligations to news
sources and special interests. Newspapers should accept nothing of value
from news sources or others outside the profession. Gifts and free or
reduced-rate travel, entertainment, products and lodging should not be
accepted. Expenses in connection with news reporting should be paid by
the newspaper. Special favors and special treatment for members of the
press should be avoided.

Involvement in such things as politics, community affairs,
demonstrations and social causes that could cause a conflict of
interest, or the appearance of such conflict, should be openly
acknowledged.

Accepting outside employment from news sources is an obvious conflict of
interest; employment by potential news sources should also be avoided.

Journalists should not accept material benefits of and kind from civil
or military government officials, public sector officials, or private
sector businessmen. Nor should they stay anywhere at the expense of a
governor, chief minister, or any other government official. They should
not allow government officials, private businessmen, or public sector
officials to provide for or to pay for their travel, stay or expenses.
This should be a routine practice of all journalists and editors. This
refusal should be even more rigorously observed when covering
controversial events.

Even when journalists accompany the prime minister to foreign countries,
they should get their news company to pay their expenses rather than go
without charge in his entourage.

Journalists should not ask for nor accept government accommodations,
land at subsidized rates, or other real estate favours from the
government or from any other source. Similarly, they should not ask for
nor accept a special quota in the allotment of such benefits as cars,
telephones or flats from government, semi-public or private
organizations.

Journalists should not ask for nor should they accept allotment of land
and provision of construction costs for establishing facilities like a
Press Club.

When covering news in the districts they should not stay in government
guest houses or in circuit houses; permission to use such facilities
necessarily involves an obligation to the district collector or some
other governmental authority.

Journalists should not ask for nor accept offers of free holiday trips
by politicians, ministers, or private businessmen.

Journalists should not solicit nor accept the assistance of government
in negotiations with their employers over pay and other perquisites of
employment.

Madhu Kishwar C/o Manushi
C-174 Lajpat Nagar I
New Delhi-110024
Phone: 6833022; 6839158
e-mail: manushi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
<html>

<center><b><u><font color="#000099"><font size=+2>Public?s Right to Know</font></font></u></b></center>

<p><font color="#006600"><font size=+1>By: Madhu Kishwar</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The press was
meant not just to inform, nor just to serve as a forum for debate, but
also to bring an independent scrutiny to bear on the forces of power in
the society, including the conduct of official power at all levels of government.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>A government official?s assertion
that information requested is confidential or secret and for some reason
cannot be made publicly available remains merely a claim. The official
involved must justify such a claim under carefully enacted proper legislation
that guarantees journalists their constitutional freedom of the press and
due process rights to dispute government?s claims and decide to publish
such information.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>The public?s right to know about
matters of importance is paramount, and the press should fight vigorously
for public access to news of government, public organizations and private
businesses through open meetings and open records; journalists should make
constant efforts to make sure that the public?s business is conducted in
public, and that public records are open to public inspection. In this
regard, the press shall make all necessary efforts to repeal the Official
Secrets Act, and help to defeat all related laws, procedures, and informal
arrangements. Public and private corporations that claim protection from
public scrutiny should be required to demonstrate that the information
sought is not relevant to the public?s right to know.</font></font>
<p><b><font color="#660000"><font size=+2>Fairness</font></font></b>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>News sources should be disclosed
unless those who refuse to permit the disclosure provide a clear and legitimate
reason not to do so. When it is necessary to protect the confidentiality
of a source the reason cited must be sound. Before any information is accepted
without full attribution, reporters must make very reasonable effort to
get it on the record. If that is not possible, reporters should consider
seeking the information elsewhere. If that in turn is not possible, reporters
should request an on-the-record reason for restricting the source?s identity
and should include the reason in the story. In any case, some kind of identification
of the source without breaching confidentiality is almost always possible
? by department or by position, for example ? and should be reported.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>The news media should not communicate
official or unofficial charges affecting some group?s or some person?s
reputation or moral character without giving the accused a real chance
to reply.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Groups or persons publicly accused
should be given the earliest opportunity to respond; it is preferable that
their response should be included in the initial news item. Any person,
group or organization whose reputation is attacked is entitled to simultaneous
rebuttal.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>The anonymous quote, especially
in stories involving controversial issues, is to be avoided, except in
those cases when the reasons for concealing the identity of a source are
completely justifiable and manifestly clear to the reader.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>News reports should be free of opinion
or bias and represent all sides of an issue.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should be accountable
to the public for their reports, and the public should be encouraged to
voice its grievances against the media. Open dialogue with readers, viewers,
and listeners should be fostered, for the reader has the right to a voice
as much as any of the professionals. The press should recognize and respect
the right of the public to comment on public issues or material appearing
in its pages. All media should provide a regular section for such commentary
or correction. The search for opposing views must be routine. Comment from
persons accused or challenged in stories must be included.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>The motives of those who press their
views upon us must routinely be examined; it must be recognized that these
motives can be noble and ignoble, obvious and devious.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>In order to be fair to the various
people taking sides on an issue, it is necessary to present simultaneously
and give similar prominence to all important sides of an issue in the same
article. For example, it is acceptable to quote someone giving an anti-Muslim
statement provided that, in the same article, the journalist also interviews
responsible people who are prepared to present information that might contradict
the accusation.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists covering communal riots
should insist that government and police officials provide the public with
accurate and timely information on how many people were killed or injured
as well as estimates of the extent of damage to homes, businesses and other
property, along with identifying information such as victims? gender, age,
occupation and community. At the same time as the press monitors the government?s
estimates, they should conduct their own independent inquiry into the accuracy
of this information. The press should not deliberately or inadvertently
obscure the actual situation by using vague statements in a mistaken attempt
to comply with unacceptable restrictions. For example, journalists should
not publish articles that are subject to misinterpretation due to lack
of specificity, such as ?one community attacked the other;? or, ?the businesses
of one community were destroyed by the other.?</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Fairness results from a few simple
practices:</font></font>
<br><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>- No story is fair if it omits
facts of major importance or significance. So fairness includes completeness.</font></font>
<br><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>- No story is fair if it includes
essentially irrelevant information at the expense of significant facts.
So fairness includes relevance.</font></font>
<br><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>- No story is fair if it consciously
or unconsciously misleads or even deceives the reader. So fairness includes
honesty.</font></font>
<br><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>- No story is fair if reporters
hide their biases or emotions behind such subtly pejorative words as ?refused?,
?despite? and ?admit?. So fairness requires straightforwardness.</font></font>
<p><b><font color="#660000"><font size=+2>Accuracy</font></font></b>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Significant errors of fact, as well
as errors of omission, should be corrected promptly and prominently. There
is no excuse for failure to check a fact or allegation. It is impossible
to avoid all error; it is easy to correct errors.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>The newspaper should background,
with the facts, public statements that it knows to be inaccurate or misleading.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>So-called news communications from
private sources should not be published or broadcast without substantiation
of their claims to news value.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Newspaper headlines should be fully
warranted by the contents of the articles they accompany. Photographs and
telecasts should give an accurate picture of an event and not highlight
a minor incident out of context.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Publishing news releases without
independent confirmation or careful commentary on the possible inaccuracies
and/ or limitations in the information provided and/or the sources, is
not acceptable.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Publishing legalese and other internal
organizational jargons without digesting the material and clarifying the
events described to enable the general reader to follow and comprehend
what is written is unacceptable journalism.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should not use a government
or private press release as the definitive or sole source of information
on an event or issue. Where provided, news releases should be identified
in the news story as the source for whatever the journalist derives from
them in reporting on any particular event or issue and comments should
be made on the possible limitations of the information that result from
the use of this source.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Where it is at all possible, information
obtained from a source should be crosschecked and conflicting or supportive
information presented simultaneously with the source?s version. When it
is not possible for the journalist to crosscheck, he should explicitly
not in his report that it was not possible to obtain information that confirms
or denies the story.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should insist on their
right to access to the news where it is being made; they should not print
any government handouts from any areas or in any situations where the government
does not allow them access. In cases where the government has provided
some claim it considers legitimate to restrict access journalists should
use all reasonable methods to insist on access. If, despite all reasonable
efforts of the press, access is still denied, journalists should only identify
the government information as a handout and if they publish it do so with
a preface indicating they cannot confirm the information given them because
they were refused access.</font></font>
<p><b><font color="#660000"><font size=+2>Responsibility and Opinion</font></font></b>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Reporters should be given a byline
for each and every story they write or contribute to so that someone besides
the editor shares both credit and responsibility.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Articles that contain opinion or
personal interpretation should be clearly identified as such. Sound practice
indicates a clear distinction between news reports and expressions of opinion.
Special articles or presentations devoted to advocacy or the writer?s own
conclusions, analyses and interpretations should be prominently labeled
as such, and kept distinct from news coverage.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>The separation of news columns from
the editorial pages and the opinion pages should be solemn and complete.
This separation is intended to serve the reader, who is entitled to the
facts in the news columns and to opinions on the editorial and opinion
pages. But nothing in this separation of function and powers is intended
to eliminate from the news columns honest, in-depth reporting, or analysis,
or commentary, when such departures from strictly factual reporting are
plainly labeled.</font></font>
<p><b><font color="#660000"><font size=+2>Avoiding Conflicts of Interest</font></font></b>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should pay their own
way. They should accept no gifts from news sources. Journalists must avoid
impropriety as well as any conflict of interest or the appearance of a
conflict of interest. They should neither accept anything nor pursue any
activity that might compromise or seem to compromise their integrity.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Advertisements should be clearly
separated from news items.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>The newspaper should not give favoured
news treatment to advertisers or special interest groups. It should report
matters regarding itself or its personnel with the same vigour and candour
as it would other institutions or individuals.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>The newspaper and its staff should
be free of obligations to news sources and special interests. Newspapers
should accept nothing of value from news sources or others outside the
profession. Gifts and free or reduced-rate travel, entertainment, products
and lodging should not be accepted. Expenses in connection with news reporting
should be paid by the newspaper. Special favors and special treatment for
members of the press should be avoided.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Involvement in such things as politics,
community affairs, demonstrations and social causes that could cause a
conflict of interest, or the appearance of such conflict, should be openly
acknowledged.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Accepting outside employment from
news sources is an obvious conflict of interest; employment by potential
news sources should also be avoided.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should not accept material
benefits of and kind from civil or military government officials, public
sector officials, or private sector businessmen. Nor should they stay anywhere
at the expense of a governor, chief minister, or any other government official.
They should not allow government officials, private businessmen, or public
sector officials to provide for or to pay for their travel, stay or expenses.
This should be a routine practice of all journalists and editors. This
refusal should be even more rigorously observed when covering controversial
events.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Even when journalists accompany
the prime minister to foreign countries, they should get their news company
to pay their expenses rather than go without charge in his entourage.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should not ask for nor
accept government accommodations, land at subsidized rates, or other real
estate favours from the government or from any other source. Similarly,
they should not ask for nor accept a special quota in the allotment of
such benefits as cars, telephones or flats from government, semi-public
or private organizations.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should not ask for nor
should they accept allotment of land and provision of construction costs
for establishing facilities like a Press Club.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>When covering news in the districts
they should not stay in government guest houses or in circuit houses; permission
to use such facilities necessarily involves an obligation to the district
collector or some other governmental authority.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should not ask for nor
accept offers of free holiday trips by politicians, ministers, or private
businessmen.</font></font>
<p><font color="#000000"><font size=+1>Journalists should not solicit nor
accept the assistance of government in negotiations with their employers
over pay and other perquisites of employment.</font></font>
<p><font color="#FF0000">Madhu Kishwar C/o Manushi</font>
<br><font color="#FF0000">C-174 Lajpat Nagar I</font>
<br><font color="#FF0000">New Delhi-110024</font>
<br><font color="#FF0000">Phone: 6833022; 6839158</font>
<br><font color="#FF0000">e-mail: manushi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx</font>
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