CAJ panel proposes ethics guidelines for digital age

ShareThisThe 2002-vintage ethics code of the Canadian Association of Journalists is certainly due for a revision—for one thing, it makes no mention of the Internet. Now, a panel of the association’s ethics committee has produced a draft revision for public comment. Panel chair Shauna Snow-Capparelli explains.

Wondering if it’s OK to take a previously “published” photo off Facebook to run with your story? Unsure whether you should “friend” your sources? Or thinking about how much verification you need when finding sources online?

In an attempt to answer these and other ethical questions presented by the Digital Age, the Canadian Association of Journalists’ ethics advisory committee has been working to revise the organization’s familiar Statement of Principles and Ethical Guidelines.

It’s the first revision for the ethics code since it was written in 2002, and as we all know, the industry has gone through monumental changes in that time.

In one sign of how outdated the existing guidelines are, the document has not a single mention of the online world.

New digital media section

That’s one of several reasons why the committee appointed a three-person panel to draft revisions to the code. The panel has proposed online-oriented enhancements to several parts of the document, plus a new “Digital Media” section in which we note initially that, “Ethical practice does not change with the medium,” and that ethical principles such as accuracy, fairness, independence and keeping promises to sources apply “no matter where our stories are published or broadcast.”

The proposed new section also works in many elements not previously addressed in the guidelines, including recent findings by the full ethics committee regarding practices around personal activity online and re-tweeting, as well as online corrections (on which a committee report is forthcoming).

But the overhaul doesn’t stop with digital content; in reviewing the existing guidelines, we found that the original code also contained many references that were overly legalistic or corporate in nature – and others that just didn’t seem to reflect current everyday practice of our craft.

So the panel – led by myself and also including investigative journalist and CAJ past-president Julian Sher, and Connie Monk, head of broadcast journalism at the British Columbia Institute of Technology – has been working for months to make the code more complete, practical and user-friendly. In addition to numerous content changes, we’ve proposed a new format that we hope will make it easier for journalists to find the points that interest them.

Now, after intensive review by the full CAJ Ethics Committee, our draft is ready for the feedback that counts: yours.

We ask you to review our proposed Principles for Ethical Journalism – reformatted into a condensed “splash page” that boils down the essential points for quick and easy reference. More in-depth details are available in the long-form Ethics Guidelines that address finer points such as undercover reporting, using quotes in context, handling requests to unpublish, reporting on polls and medical studies, engaging in political activities, and contacting crime victims.

CAJ conference session

Both versions of the guidelines will be presented at a special session of the CAJ’s annual conference in Ottawa (May 13-15). In addition to seeking your general suggestions, ethics committee chair Ivor Shapiro (Ryerson University) will join me in attempting to gain consensus on a few points that were contentious even among our own members.

These contentious points in the panel’s draft include whether showing finished reports to sources prior to publication is an iron-rule no-no, whether different standards for freebies should be applied to travel writing, and whether there might be cases where it is OK to pay sources for information. Plus: must online content always be edited “as carefully as” content for legacy media?

Please join us for this important discussion, which will take place Saturday morning, May 14, at 09:00 at the Sheraton Ottawa Hotel.

And if you can’t join us in person, please read over the proposed new documents anyway and send any and all feedback to me (with “CAJ Ethics” in the subject field) at ssnowcapparelli@mtroyal.ca.

Shauna Snow-Capparelli, a former Los Angeles Times staff writer and entertainment columnist, is associate professor of journalism at Mount Royal University, where she’s also supervising editor of the Calgary Journal and the author of the school’s  "Journalism Code of Ethics and Professional Practices.”