The readers’ editor on … the rights and wrongs of journalism under pressure
The Guardian – United Kingdom
Published: Mar 19, 2007

Any time now a book of these columns, drawn from the 350 or so I have
written over the past decade, is to be published by Guardian Books
under the title Journalism Right and Wrong. All the ethical and other
issues discussed in it are matters raised by you, calling into
question particular things the Guardian has done, whether in print or
online.

The title might equally have said Journalism Right or Wrong, because
very often we have been trying to work out between us which was the
case: was the Guardian right or wrong to publish what it did, or in
the way that it did? Sometimes we have come to the conclusion that we
do not know, or at least to concede that there are differing points of
view, all with some merit.

The title, therefore, is not meant to be dogmatic because there is
very little dogma in the columns themselves. The intention has been to
render normal or natural a running and public debate on the ethics of
journalism between the readers of the Guardian and its
journalists. This is still an unusual enough phenomenon anywhere in
the world of journalism. Even more unusual is the freedom with which
we have been able to have this conversation, unaffected by editorial
edict or embargo, often about matters that the majority of news
organisations would still consider too embarrassing to mention.

Apropos of the conversational tone, Sterne’s Tristram Shandy – to be
dogmatic for a moment – should be compulsory reading for journalists:
"Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is)
is but a different name for conversation." Tristram Shandy, by the
way, was "the favourite novel" of John Wilkes, to whom we owe a debt
for the freedoms we enjoy and still have to protect (see Arthur H
Cash: John Wilkes, the Scan dalous Father of Civil Liberty, Yale,
2006). But I digress.

The columns in the book are arranged thematically, with the idea of
making it as useful as possible to students of journalism or any
others involved in the business who are inclined to define their work,
as I do mine, as an effort to understand. For example, there are
sections that group together columns dealing with the continuously
controversial matter of payment to criminals, which I have said is
sometimes a good thing; the coverage of conflict and disaster; the use
of pictures, particularly those that appear to many to be at or beyond
the borders of acceptability; picture manipulation and the integrity
of the image; plagiarism and the responsibility to acknowledge
sources.

Other sections include columns that discuss the need for, and what
constitutes, reasonable sensitivity to the feelings of others,
particularly in areas where some intrusion upon grief has been
involved. I am glad that our discussions of the reporting of suicide
resulted in the inclusion several years ago of a cautionary clause in
the Guardian’s editorial code, and more recently may have contributed
to the decision to include a note with a similar purpose in the code
monitored by the Press Complaints Commission. There are also columns
dealing with language, including – not an area in which I have had
much effect – expletives.

It is, I am slightly surprised to find, the sixth book to be drawn
from my not quite Sisyphean labours here. Two of these have been
collections of columns with some of the lighter corrections, and one
has been devoted almost entirely to corrections. Only two have been
devoted entirely to columns – one of those is in Russian and the other
is in Armenian.

It was really these last two, which are used primarily by students,
that encouraged the publication of the present book. Teachers at the
journalism schools where I have spoken in the past few years have also
said that something like it would be useful. Many students on courses
in Britain now come from countries where this kind of conversation and
scrutiny simply does not take place. Perhaps it will in the future.

Ian Mayes is the president of the Organisation of News Ombudsmen
_reader@guardian.co.uk_ (mailto:reader@guardian.co.uk)

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress