Poynter Online - Ethics Codes from Around the World: "Ethics Codes from Around the World

By Sree Sreenivasan
Columbia Professor & Poynter Visiting Professor



Now that the New York Times has released its revised ethics code (New York Times Ethics Policy PDF), I thought it might be useful to find a site that lists ethics codes for journalists from around the world.

The site I found that does this best is England's PressWise Trust, which has an archive of more than 100 journalists' codes in its ethics section. PressWise, which is based in Bristol, is a self-described 'media ethics charity' and works to improve the standards of U.K. journalism.

The ethics section can be used in two ways. On the main page is a collection of codes divided by country (from Albania to the United States), along with the codes of international organizations and some U.S. newspapers (though not yet the NYT's). On the right-hand column, you can see excerpts of various codes on selected topics, including accuracy, bribery, copyright, minorities, and women. Comparing the codes of each country is quite educational. (One tweak the site needs: I would put the date each code was revised right up top.)

In the meantime, back in the U.S., to keep track of ethics goings-on, you should bookmark the ethics section of the Poynter site and Bob Steele's 'Talk About Ethics' items."