Principles of Journalism

• Name 9 principles of journalism formulated by the U.S. Committee of Concerned Journalists.

• Do these principles work in Russia? Are they applicable in Russian journalism? Analyze the principles. Prove your point.

In 1997 the Committee of Concerned Journalists began a national conversation among citizens and news people to identify and clarify the principles that underlie journalism. After four years of research, including 20 public forums around the country, a reading of journalism history, a national survey of journalists, and more, the group released a Statement of Shared Purpose that identified nine principles. 

The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.

These principles comprise what might be described as the theory of journalism:

- 1 JOURNALISM'S FIRST OBLIGATION IS TO THE TRUTH

Democracy depends on citizens having reliable, accurate facts put in a meaningful context. Journalism must pursue the truth in a practical sense. This "journalistic truth" is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts. Journalists should be as transparent as possible about sources and methods so audiences can make their own assessment of the information. 

- 2 ITS FIRST LOYALTY IS TO CITIZENS

Journalists must maintain allegiance to citizens and the larger public interest above any other if they are to provide the news without fear or favor. Commitment to citizens also means journalism should present a representative picture of all constituent groups in society. Ignoring certain citizens has the effect of disenfranchising them. 

- 3 ITS ESSENCE IS A DISCIPLINE OF VERIFICATION

Journalists rely on a professional discipline for verifying information. It called for a consistent method of testing information and a transparent approach to evidence. Personal and cultural biases should not undermine the accuracy of work. The method is objective, not the journalist. Seeking out multiple witnesses, disclosing as much as possible about sources, or asking various sides for comment, all signal such standards. This discipline of verification is what separates journalism from other modes of communication, such as propaganda, fiction or entertainment. 

--4 ITS PRACTITIONERS MUST MAINTAIN AN INDEPENDENCE FROM THOSE THEY COVER

Independence is an underlying requirement of journalism, a cornerstone of its reliability. Independence of spirit and mind, rather than neutrality, is the principle journalists must keep in focus. In our independence, however, we must avoid any tendency to stray into arrogance, elitism, isolation or nihilism. 

- 5. IT MUST SERVE AS AN INDEPENDENT MONITOR OF POWER

Journalism has an unusual capacity to serve as watchdog over those whose power and position most affect citizens. As journalists, we have an obligation to protect this watchdog freedom by not demeaning it in frivolous use or exploiting it for commercial gain. 

- 6. IT MUST PROVIDE A FORUM FOR PUBLIC CRITICISM AND COMPROMISE

The news media are the common carriers of public discussion, and this responsibility forms a basis for our special privileges. This discussion serves society best when it is informed by facts rather than prejudice and supposition. It also should strive to fairly represent the varied viewpoints and interests in society, and to place them in context rather than highlight only the conflicting fringes of debate. Accuracy and truthfulness require that as framers of the public discussion we not neglect the points of common ground where problem solving occurs.

- 7. IT MUST STRIVE TO MAKE THE SIGNIFICANT INTERESTING AND RELEVANT 

Journalism is storytelling with a purpose. It should do more than gather an audience or catalogue the important. For its own survival, it must balance what readers know they want with what they cannot anticipate but need. In short, it must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant. This means journalists must continually ask what information has most value to citizens and in what form. 

- 8. IT MUST KEEP THE NEWS COMPREHENSIVE AND PROPORTIONAL

Journalism is a form of cartography: it creates a map for citizens to navigate society. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map. The map also should include news of all our communities, not just those with attractive demographics. 

- 9. ITS PRACTITIONERS MUST BE ALLOWED TO EXERCISE THEIR PERSONAL CONSCIENCE

Every journalist must have a personal sense of ethics and responsibility--a moral compass. Each of us must be willing, if fairness and accuracy require, to voice differences with our colleagues, whether in the newsroom or the executive suite. This stimulates the intellectual diversity necessary to understand and accurately cover an increasingly diverse society. It is this diversity of minds and voices, not just numbers, that matters.

In Russia we also have the Code of Professional Ethics of the Russian journalist, which was approved by the Congress of Russian Journalists in 1994. And in many ways it reflects the main ideas of the above-mentioned 9 principles.

Насколько успешно идеи «честности, лояльности, непредвзятости и т.д.» применяются российскими журналистами – решайте сами