INDUSTRY CODES ON DIVERSITY AND REPRESENTATION

Media codes and ethics

Journalism Code of Ethics1
(As developed by the Independent Media Council of Uganda)
PREAMBLE
We the media practitioners in Uganda: Conscious of the central role of the press freedom in a free and democratic Uganda;
Aware that an independent and honourable profession is indispensable to the maintenance of press freedom;

Recognising our role in the preservation of democracy in Uganda;
Aware of our professional responsibilities requiring us to maintain highest standards of professional conduct;
Resolve to have this Code of Ethics to govern the conduct and practice of all media practitioners, media owners and media institutions and as a basis for adjudication of disputes between the press, the public and government in Uganda by the Independent Media Council of Uganda.

1. Scope
This code shall apply to media practitioners involved in all stages of sourcing, processing media content for print, graphic and electronic platforms.

2. Professional Integrity
2.1 A journalist shall assist and participate in establishing, maintaining, enforcing and observing high standards of conduct so that the integrity and independence of the profession is preserved.

2.2 A journalist shall always identify him/herself and the media house where he/she works. Use of undercover or subterfuge methods to gain entry into restricted places or access to information shall be done only as matter of public interest and with the permission of the editor.

2.3 A journalist shall not tape or record anyone without the person’s knowledge. An exception may be made only if the recording is necessary to protect the journalist in a legal action or for some other compelling reason.

42 Media organisation in Uganda presented memoranda containing proposals for principles of self-regulation in the country’s media sector. This code was developed out of those proposals.

2.4 A journalist shall not solicit, accept bribes or any form of inducement meant to bend or influence professional performance. However, facilitation by third parties to enable a journalist to perform a bonafide assignment in specific situations shall not be deemed as an inducement provided that the assigning editor sanctions such facilitation.

3. Conflict of Interest
3.1 A journalist shall always declare to the editor any conflict of interest that arises in the execution of duty and may request for leave to disqualify him/herself from such assignment to avoid the conflict.

3.2 A journalist shall endeavour to remain free of associations and activities that compromises personal integrity or undermines the reputation of the profession.

4. Accuracy, Fairness and Balance
4.1 A journalist has the responsibility for the accuracy of the information he/she disseminates. The journalist shall also ensure that such information is fair and balanced. Journalists shall not indulge in unfair comment, falsification, distortion or misrepresentation of facts.

4.2 A journalist and the employing media house shall endeavour to thoroughly investigate allegations affecting individuals and institutions before disseminating them.

4.3 In the spirit of fairness and balance, the journalist shall endeavour to seek and include comment from the affected individuals or institutions in the same story or as quickly as practicable. Fairness shall also include reporting facts in the proper context. Where the affected party declines to comment or where the media house genuinely tries but fails to extract a comment, such position shall be explained in the story published or broadcast.

4.4 Whenever it is recognised that an inaccurate, misleading or distorted story has been published or broadcast, it shall be corrected or clarified promptly, without waiting for a complaint to be raised first.

4.5 Corrections should also be reasonably proportional to the error in terms of impact.
4.6 Corrections shall be clear and shall carry an apology to affected parties. For purposes of clarity, corrections shall apply to errors of fact and inaccuracies while clarifications shall apply to misleading or distorted information.

5. Right of Reply
5.1 Media houses shall accord aggrieved parties the right of reply to material published or broadcast about them.
5.2 Journalists shall distinguish clearly in their reports between comment, conjecture and fact. News shall remain objective but a journalist may be partisan in commentaries and opinion pieces.
5.3 A comment shall be a genuine expression of opinion relating to fact. Comment or conjecture shall not be presented in such a way as to create the impression that it is an established fact.

6. Social responsibility
6.1 A journalist shall, in the dissemination of information, bear in mind his/her responsibility of educating and informing the public on matters affecting them and their responsibility in society. The journalist’s responsibility shall include monitoring government and other centres of influence and power on behalf of the public; and this responsibility shall not be abused for whatever reason.

6.2 A media practitioner shall at all times defend the principle of the freedom of the press and other mass media by striving to eliminate unjustified news suppression and censorship.
7. Respect for privacy and human dignity
7.1 The public’s right to know shall always be weighed vis- à-vis the individual’s right to privacy.
7.2 Publications about the private lives of individuals, without their consent, are not acceptable except where public interest overrides the right of privacy.

7.3 It is justified to publish information about individuals where this is for: detecting or exposing criminal conduct; detecting or exposing seriously anti-social conduct; protecting public health and safety; and preventing the public from being misled by some statement or action of that individual where such a person is doing something in private which he or she is publicly condemning.

7.3 Journalists shall seek to understand the boundaries of public and private space. In this regard, journalists can legitimately report about activities of individuals in a public place but not in a private environment.

8. Letters to the Editor
8.1 For purposes of the Code, Letters to the Editor shall include normal letters sent physically or electronically.
8.2 An editor who decides to open columns on a controversial subject is not obliged to publish all the letters received in regard to that subject. The Editor may; 

• select and publish only some of them either in their entirety or the gist thereof. The Editor shall, however, present a fair balance between the pros and cons of the principal issue and reserve the discretion to decide at which point to
  close the debate.

8.3 In case of radio and TV discussion programmes, hosts shall make reasonable effort to reach out for comment from persons mentioned. Hosts shall also encourage and balance comments from the audience sent by any of the modern means of interactivity.

9. Plagiarism
9.1 No media practitioner shall engage in plagiarism. Plagiarism consists of making use of another person’s material or ideas without proper acknowledgement and attribution of the source of those ideas or material.

9.2 Words directly quoted from sources other than the writer’s own reporting shall be attributed. In general, when other work is used as the source of ideas for stylistic inspiration the final report shall be clearly different from the original work.

9.3 The editor shall take final responsibility to ensure that published or broadcast content in stories or programs does not contain plagiarised material and that any borrowed content is properly attributed to the rightful author.

10. Non-disclosure of sources
10.1 A journalist shall protect the confidentiality of his/her sources of information and shall only divulge them at the demand of a competent court of law.
10.2 Journalists shall follow the in-house rules and get the editor’s consent before granting confidentiality. Once such confidentiality has been granted, both the journalist and the media house shall honour it. It shall be the ultimate responsibility of the Editor to ensure that such protection is granted and guaranteed.

10.3 In order to have the clarity of mind and the confidence, the editor, being the final editorial authority, shall have liberty to demand of the journalist the source of the story. But the editor shall under no circumstances disclose the said sources to a third party.
10.4 The Editor shall also have the privilege to reject use of any story where he/she doubts the journalist’s sources.

10.5 For the sake of the integrity and security of the profession, journalists shall not allow to be used as Police witnesses in the investigation of crime simply because the journalists covered the events where such crime was allegedly committed. Such compliance would erode the trust the public holds in the profession of journalism.

11. Intrusion into grief
11.1 Journalists shall not intrude into personal grief. Stories and pictures that may aggravate grief or cause distress to relatives and friends of the dead shall not be published. Any reports about the dead and gravely ill shall be carried out with utmost discretion and due sympathy.

11.2 Journalists and media houses shall not profiteer from deliberate exploitation of the misfortune of those afflicted by grief. The media shall also avoid re-use of file pictures of situations of death and grave illnesses of persons likely to resurrect distress among relatives and friends.

12. Innocent relatives and friends
12.1 The media shall generally avoid identifying relatives or friends of persons convicted or accused of crime unless the reference to them is necessary for the full, fair and accurate reporting on the crime or legal proceedings and where such identification adds value to the story.

13 Victims of sex crimes
13.1 Media Institutions shall not identify victims of sexual assaults or publish or broadcast material likely to contribute to such identification unless the victims have given informed consent to such publications.
13.2 A journalist shall endeavour to explain to the concerned person the implications of such disclosure. In cases where consent is given subject to certain conditions, then such conditions shall be respected.
13.3 The journalists need to understand that ordinarily such publication does not serve any legitimate journalistic or public need and may bring social opprobrium (public disgrace and shame) to the victims and social embarrassment to their relations, family, friends, community, religious order or the institutions to which they belong.

13.4 Children shall particularly not be identified as victims, however remotely.
14. Protection of children
14.1 Children shall not be identified in cases concerning sexual offences, whether as victims, witnesses, or defendants.

14.2 Except in matters of public interest, e.g. cases of child abuse or abandonment, journalists shall not normally interview or photograph children on subjects involving their personal welfare in the absence of, or without the consent of a parent or other adult who is responsible for the children.
14.3 Children shall not be approached or photographed while in a formal institution without the permission of the institution’s authority.

15 Children in criminal cases
Media institutions shall not publish or broadcast the names of any underage offenders (below 18 years) arrested by Police or tried in the criminal courts.
Where such identification must be made, the media house shall explain the overriding reasons that led to such an editorial decision.
16 Publication of adults-only material
16.1 Out of respect to values of common decency, the media shall take extra care when dealing with adults-only material.
16.2 A media house, which publishes or broadcast adults- only material, shall ensure such material is not accessible to the underage (minors) and shall provide restricted places or time where willing adults can access such material.
16.3 Television stations shall also schedule adult movies later at night when children are in bed. Such programs shall be properly labelled with appropriate advisories including in the TV schedules published in newspapers.
16.4 Radio stations shall air adults-only programs late at night when children are in bed and they shall make appropriate promotional advisories to that effect.

17 Use of pictures
17.1 The Media must exercise due caution when using pictures. Choice and use of pictures should not cause unnecessary harm to persons concerned e.g, exploiting minors and people with disabilities. Special care shall be taken when using pictures of disasters.
17.2 The use of grisly, grotesque and gruesome pictures should be avoided except where there is overriding public interest. Illustrations accompanying stories of adult material shall be measured both in content and in caption.

18 Hatred
18.1 Media Institutions shall not publish or broadcast material that is intended or is likely to cause hostility or hatred towards persons on the grounds of their race, ethnic origins, nationality, religion or political affiliation.
18.2 Media institutions shall take utmost care to avoid contributing to the spread of ethnic hatred when reporting events and statements of this nature.
18.3 Media shall endeavour to regulate and balance debate and discussion of sensitive issues, like corruption, nepotism, favouritism so that they do not degenerate into hate literature.

19. Disadvantaged and marginalized groups
19.1 The media shall not publish material that is intended to ridicule, or impute ridicule of persons on grounds of their gender or physical disabilities.
19.2 The media shall also take steps to ensure that content for publication or broadcast, including paid-for content, is free of such contemptuous material.

20 Covering conflicts
20.1 The media shall exercise a high sense of individual and corporate citizen responsibility when covering conflict and while commenting on sectarian disputes. Covering conflict shall be done in a manner that is conducive to the creation of an atmosphere congenial to national harmony, amity and peace.
20.2 News, views and comments shall be backed by facts and measured in language and tone. But it shall be the responsibility of the media to highlight potential conflicts before they explode and seek to help society heal wounds after conflict.

21. Undue pressure or influence
Media owners, publishers and practitioners shall not suppress or distort information about which the public has a right to know because of undue pressure or influence from commercial, political or social interest.

22. Payment for Information
22.1 Media Owners, Publishers and Practitioners shall not publish, broadcast or suppress an editorial report or omit or alter vital facts in that report in return for payment of money or for any other gift or reward.

22.2 This ethic shall, however, not apply to advertisements or advertorials. Media houses shall clearly distinguish between editorial content and advertisements or advertorials.
22.3 Media owners, publishers and media practitioners shall not pay people to act as information sources unless there is demonstrable public interest value in the information

24 Advertisements
24.1 The media shall strive to preserve the sanctity and impartiality of news. As such media houses shall not allow news bulletins to be sponsored.
24.2 Journalists shall always be seen to remain independent and shall not dress in corporate branded wear when presenting programs or covering sponsored events.

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES and ACTIVITIES
The need to avoid state regulation of the media has led to media industries in various regions developing voluntary diversity codes, meant to ensure that these industries demonstrate a commitment to content and initiatives that are inclusive and diverse. Many industries also follow a code of ethics that prohibits the use of abusive or discriminatory material based on race, ethnicity, age, gender, physical ability or marital status.