Journalists seek ethics watchdog

The opportunity of setting up an Ethics Council to monitor the activity of the media institutions was discussed on Tuesday at the conference titled “National and European Ethical Standards in Broadcasting”. Ion Bunduchi, the executive director of the Electronic Press Association APEL, said that there are documents which require journalists to stick to ethical rules, but there are no institutions to supervise their observance. “We should build some sort of a guild of journalists who share these values. We don't have one yet. Some of the journalists just praise the government, while the others criticize it, and it's impossible for them to make up such a guild”, Ion Bunduchi told Info-Prim Neo. Eugen Rabca, an expert with APEL, thinks that the members of the Ethics Council, if set up, should get paid for their job in order to increase the council's efficiency. The Council should monitor equally the print press, the broadcasters and the on-line media, Rabca suggests. “The punishments applied by this council must have a moral character, but much tougher than the legal ones. It would be good if we borrowed some of Britain's experience, where the employers do not accept journalists who have been punished severely for ethical misconduct”, says he. According to him, the Broadcasting Coordination Council (BCC) and other governmental agencies must not interfere with the monitoring process of this council. “In Moldova, lying is typically done with silence, a practice particularly widespread at the public broadcasting company. Professional prescriptions are tripled, different opinions are not set against each other for a complete picture, and the work is done depending on who's paying for it”, BCC member Vlad Turcanu pointed the ethical failures of the Moldovan media. Attending the conference, Vladimir Ristovski, Special Representative of the Council of Europe's Secretary General, informed that the Parliamentary Assembly of CoE is going to discuss next week in Strasbourg a draft Resolution on media. The document would outline the key media standards that must be followed in a democracy. Particular attention will be paid to 'in-house' and professional codes of conduct of journalists. The conference “National and European Ethical Standards in Broadcasting” is held in Chisinau during September 23-24 as part of the Right to Know Days.