You probably won't know who this is. This is Daphne Caruana Galizia, a journalist from Malta who wrote stories about the ties between organized crime, government and gambling in Malta. In 2017 in mid-October she was killed in a car-bomb attack, suspected to be the work of the mafia. She was killed for telling the truth.
You possibly also won't know who this is. This is Mahzer Mahmood, a journalist for the Sun and the News Of The World who has been writing undercover-stories for them for decades, often stories he's got by posing as an Arab business man ('fake sheik' was his nickname) and doing 'sting' operations on celebs (selling drugs, offering business deals) and others to entrap stars and gain information. He was convicted in October last year of perverting the course of justice by publishing false-information that prejudiced a court case. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison for lying in print and getting his stories in ways that broke the law.
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| Journalists marching in support of Al-Jazeera journalists who were locked up by the Egyptian govt for publishing mildly critical stories. |
Journalism is not all giggles. In alot of countries there's no proper press regulation so not only can any lies be printed as facts without anyone contradicting them, governments also feel they can arrest/imprison journalists for no reason, usually to shut them up. In the UK we have a free press but also a regulated one. This means that journalists can operate without worrying about being killed for something they've said, or being arrested for doing their job so long as they stay the right side of the law.
With freedom though, comes responsibilities.
As writers and creators of your magazines I will expect you to write freely about what you want to write about. However I'll also expect you to feel a sense of responsibility with your writing - to tell the truth, and to obey the law when writing your articles and not end up like Mr. Mahmood.
Crucially in the UK we have a press REGULATOR that we can complain to if we aren't happy about anything we read in print
IPSO, like Ofcom for Radio/TV, are the REGULATORS of the press and like Ofcom they have a CODE OF PRACTICE for editors. Every writer, photographer, illustrator, editor, journalist and every mag or paper is expected to abide by the IPSO code of conduct, which states that ANYONE involved in Print Media has 3 areas of responsibility - social (responsibility to the wider world), legal (responsibility not to break the law in writing) and ethical (a personal responsibility to try and tell the truth in your writing and not use deceit to get stories).
Obviously I am going to expect you to adhere and abide by the principles of that code in your magazine. Today I'd like you to put the finishing touch to your magazine proposal by telling me about the social, legal and ethical responsibilities you as a writer and editor will be sticking to while creating your mag.
Do this in the following way.
1. On your proposal add a subheading 'My Responsibilities'.
Add a couple of lines about who IPSO are, and what they do, as well as linking to their code of practice (you may want to re-use your previous IPSO work).
https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/
- this is a link to the code. Different sections of the code are relevant to Social, Legal & Ethical responsibilities. Paste in the link to your blogpost + open it up in a new tab, you're going to need to quote from it.
"Writers must avoid defamation or libel as well as contempt of court (i.e reporting on cases that might unfairly affect juries, naming children or revealing info that is sub-judice) Writing shouldn’t contravene laws of copyright (i.e be thieved from someone else’s copyrighted work without proper permission) or reveal information that has been delivered in strict confidence or threatens national security (e.g official secrets)"
Then tell me . . . .
Do you think you're likely to be in danger of breaking any of these rules in your magazine?
Can you quote from the code where it mentions these things? (Merit/Distinction indicator)
3. Add the subheading 'Ethical Responsibilities'. Read the following line and then put what you can in your own words.
"Writers have a duty to obey codes of professional practice and obey the law regarding privacy, intrusion and harrassment in getting their stories. Journalists should feel they are doing the RIGHT THING when getting the stories."
Do you think you're likely to be in danger of breaking any of these rules in your magazine?
Can you quote from the code where it mentions these things? (Merit/Distinction indicator)
"Writers must be aware that their writing is for PUBLIC perusal and must therefore be sensitive to issues of race, gender, sexuality. Writers must also be aware of HOW the writing could be read by children, minorities, and victims of crime. Writers also fundamentally have a social responsibility to write THE TRUTH. Biased, factually-incorrect writing makes for an ignorant readership and an ignorant debate."
Do you think your writing on your blog or in your articles could offend anyone, or be read differently by different audiences?
Can you quote from the code where it mentions these things? (Merit/Distinction indicator)
WHAT YOU SHOULD END UP WITH
The final part of your proposal containing an outline of the social, legal and ethical responsibilities you're going to stick to in creating your magazine.
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