The first phase of a project to help the Chinese media develop its own codes of practice has taken place in four major cities there.
Thomson Foundation consultants Ian Beales and John Prescott Thomas ran seminars in Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shanghai at which they used hypothetical ‘news’ situations to illustrate issues of journalistic ethics.
Funded by the British government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the project aims to reinforce editorial standards and ethics, improving consistency and increasing credibility and trust of readers and TV and radio audiences.
The Foundation has local logistical support from the Beijing-based Communication University of China.
Participating print and broadcast organisations will now draft their own respective media codes, with email comments and advice from the Foundation consultants. The codes will be finalised with the participants over the coming weeks. The final stage of the project is the publication of a book of codes which will be distributed to the media across China.
“In every venue we detected an enormous appetite for free-ranging discussion,” commented Ian Beales. “ Journalists were particularly interested in learning ‘how others do it’ and in comparing Chinese practice with our own approach.
“A crucial aspect of the project is that major press and TV groups develop their own individually-tailored and self-determined codes of practice.”
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