Does Internet Need a Night Shift?

The creation of a journalistic ethics commission, the way it was staffed, its members and their authority has been met with suspicion by media members. Starting its work at the time of the kickoff of the election campaign, the commission has come up with a number of proposals. Addressing a press conference on January 15 in Kyiv, representatives of the commission declared that leading dot-com publications will be proposed to sign an agreement on a clean Internet at a round table slated for this week. Due to the fact that the Ukrainian segment of the Web remains unregulated by legislation, it has become “a shelter for journalists who, calling themselves freelancers, simultaneously serve as mouthpieces of black technologies,” commission member Natalia Lihachova stressed in her remarks. In a related move, commission Chair Volodymyr Mostovy said this has sparked unethical coverage of events by journalists and trespassing over private matters of not merely politicians, but grass roots Ukrainians as well. Participants of the round table were given printouts of some of the latest materials carried by the Versiyi, Nedovira, and Hrani-plus dot-com publications, with passages where, in the commission’s opinion, their authors crossed the line of journalistic ethics highlighted. According to the initiators of the round table, the commission will first try to strike a deal on a clean Internet before pointing its finger at specific journalists and sites, although the commission is against blacklisting media representatives, its members assured those present at the press conference.

COMMENTS

Oleksandr SHVETS, Editor-in-Chief, Fakty i kommentarii:

There is no need for us to sign this agreement because we have never smeared the Internet with yarns and improprieties — neither before nor after the election. This concept should become a major provision in journalists’ code of ethics. I am convinced that being true to oneself is much more important than putting one’s signature under any commitment.

Were I asked to sign the appeal Journalists for Clean Elections, I would say there is no need to do so. The journalists’ code of ethics cannot be reduced to drawing up a protocol by some commission. It is a much more important issue, something one cannot acquire through training or signing obligations. One becomes aware of it only in the course of one’s journalistic work. As to the bad guys in journalism and politics, there is no way they can be made to toe the line, at least, not by affixing signatures. This is too naive: they will put their signatures and play however they chose.

P.S. The Day offers its readers and experts to give their views on the issue of cleanliness in the Ukrainian Internet.