08. 11. 2005

MORE PROFESSIONAL MEDIA

BELGRADE, November 8, 2005 – Special reporter of the Media Center’s Press Council Gordana Susa said the state of ethics in the Serbian media in October had been improved as compared to the previous months. “The media was more careful to place sensitive information from the ethical point of view. This however does not mean there was no violation of ethical principles. Dailies Vecernje Novosti and Glas Javnosti still lead with 11 cases of violation of ethical norms. Following are the daily Kurir, with 10 articles, and Blic with 6, while Politika, Danas, Vreme, NIN and Evropa had only one such example”, said Susa in her report. “The most common cases of not respecting the ethical principles were sensationalism, publishing of groundless accusations, libel, rumors and defamation, fabricated letters, letters of anonymous authors and authors whose identity is unverifiable”, said Susa. She also said that the major problem lied in the fact that journalists often failed to comply with the fundamental rule of confirming the information by at least two sources prior to releasing it.