Journalism Ethics: The Foundation of Humane Journalism

From January 1, 2017, the 2016 Press Law and the Code of Ethics for Vietnamese Journalists will both come into effect. This is the foundation for building a humane press, for people, and respecting people.

On the occasion of the 91st anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day (June 21, 1925 - June 21, 2016), journalist Ho Quang Loi, Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Journalists Association, General Secretary of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists, discussed the story of journalism ethics.

How do you evaluate the role of professional ethics in the development of Vietnam's revolutionary press, sir?

Journalistic ethics is the core of journalism. Without ethics, it is impossible to build an honest journalism that respects the truth, protects truth, justice, and reason. An ethical journalist is a journalist who always takes the protection of reason, justice, and righteousness as the noble values ​​that he strives for.

Journalist Ho Quang Loi, Permanent Vice President of Vietnam Journalists Association, General Secretary of ASEAN Journalists Confederation

I have been a journalist for 37 years now. I, like my colleagues across the country, am proud that we have a revolutionary press, an honest press, a press for the country, for the people, for the people and respect for people.

We have many outstanding journalists who have spent their whole lives striving, contributing and dedicating themselves to the greatness of journalism. They have contributed to building the glorious tradition of Vietnam's revolutionary journalism. Thanks to that, the press has been respected and trusted by society, and has been given a very noble mission, which is to ensure society's right to information, contributing to building an increasingly prosperous, democratic and civilized country.

However, recently, when referring to the concept of press ethics, many people often understand it only in a negative sense. What do you think about this?

Indeed, there have been recent heartbreaking events that have sounded an alarm bell about the issue of journalistic ethics. That is the phenomenon of journalism being commercialized, being lured by material temptations, being manipulated, being bound by social relationships, for the sake of profit, from which there are wrongdoings.

There are acts that are both legally and morally wrong, and there are also acts that are not easy to prosecute according to the provisions of the law, but are morally problematic, with very sophisticated "tricks" to carry out impure purposes.

There are actions that cause harm to an agency, business, or collective, causing some businesses to go bankrupt before being cleared. There are also actions that attack individuals, violate privacy, offend the dignity and honor of citizens, causing some people to be under pressure, mentally pressured, beyond endurance to the point of committing suicide. That is unkind, even very cruel.

However, I want us to look at the issue of journalistic ethics in a comprehensive, objective, and satisfactory way. We should not have an unsatisfactory, biased view of the issue of journalists' professional ethics just because of a few incidents or phenomena emerging in today's media life.

With many years of experience in journalism and press management, can you explain the causes of current violations of journalistic ethics?

In my opinion, everything comes from social change. First of all, it is the impact of the negative side of the market mechanism, where money reigns supreme and manipulates social relationships.

Second, social life is strongly impacted and impacted by the digital information age, in which a lot of information is unverified, uncontrolled, and much is fabricated and slanderous. False information is spreading on social networks. This chaotic and mixed sea of ​​information has been and is directly impacting every family, every citizen, every corner of social life, silently but very violently.

Third, the subjective reasons of journalists are lack of political courage, professional courage, lack of training, self-cultivation, and lack of professional knowledge. There are unintentional mistakes due to lack of qualifications, but there are intentional mistakes, knowing that they are wrong but still doing it, covering up the wrong with sophisticated measures and tricks, leading to very harmful consequences for society. This is truly a "hot" issue of journalistic ethics.

It is known that the Association of Journalists is building a Code of Ethics for Vietnamese journalists. How is this work being carried out?

The 13th National Assembly, in its final session, issued a very important law, the 2016 Press Law. This law has a provision specifically for the Vietnam Journalists Association, with 8 specific tasks, including: The Vietnam Journalists Association develops, promulgates and organizes the implementation of the Code of Ethics for Vietnamese journalists.

The Vietnam Journalists Association is implementing a wide-ranging campaign in the Vietnamese press community, at all levels, to study, thoroughly understand and grasp the content and spirit of the 2016 Press Law. At the same time, it is opening a discussion and giving feedback through seminars, forums and talks at all levels of the association and in social life, in order to supplement, amend and complete new regulations on professional ethics for Vietnamese journalists.

Each level of the association will draft a proposal, send it to the Central Committee of the Vietnam Journalists Association to collect, refine, and develop it into a draft Regulation on professional ethics for Vietnamese journalists. A conference at the central level may be held, continue to complete it, and then submit it to the Standing Committee and Executive Committee of the Vietnam Journalists Association for approval.

Why use the term “regulation” rather than “rule” or “convention”?

The issue of professional ethics has been raised for decades. The Vietnam Journalists Association has issued a convention on professional ethics. But the convention is mainly to encourage self-awareness. Later, it was found that the convention was not enough to solve problems related to professional ethics, so it was upgraded to a regulation.

At the 8th Congress of the Vietnam Journalists Association in 2005, the Regulations on Professional Ethics for Vietnamese Journalists, consisting of 9 articles, were issued. Eleven years have passed, the life of the country, society and issues related to the professional ethics of journalists have changed a lot, requiring the promulgation of a new set of regulations.

The new set of regulations is built from the grassroots, all journalists must be responsible for contributing their opinions. The associations at all levels not only collect opinions from journalists and reporters but also from many other subjects in society such as press managers, socio-political activists and readers in general.

When officially promulgated, the Code of Ethics for Vietnamese Journalists will be implemented simultaneously with the Press Law on January 1, 2017. In other words, legal regulations and ethical regulations go hand in hand, forming the foundation for building a humane press that serves the country and the people.

On the occasion of the 91st anniversary of Vietnam Revolutionary Press Day, do you have any message for journalists?

On the occasion of the glorious traditional day of Vietnamese journalists, I would like to send my respectful and warm greetings to all Vietnamese journalists, express my respect and appreciation to the previous generations of journalists, the famous veteran journalists of the country, who have become examples of selfless journalism. It is these examples that are present in today's journalism life, motivating and encouraging journalists of the next generations.

I also wish my colleagues abundant creative energy, upholding the social responsibility and civic duty of journalists, while strengthening the combativeness of journalism, valuing humanity in professional work to contribute to building an increasingly advanced and vibrant Vietnamese revolutionary press, trusted by society, and contributing worthily to the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.

Thank you!