Back Issues
Abstracts of Vol 11(2), September 2005
Edited by David Robie and Claude-Jean Bertrand
Introduction
Media accountability
Claude-Jean Bertrand pp 5-16
Professor emeritus
University of Paris 2
www.presscouncils.org
Theme:
MEDIA ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY:
1. A case study in ethical failure: Twenty years of media coverage of Aboriginal deaths in custody
Wendy Bacon pp 17-41
Abstract: Australia’s media accountability systems (M*A*S) include the Australian Press Council, broadcasting self-regulatory schemes, public broadcasting charters, the Media, Arts and Entertainment Alliance (MEAA) Code of Ethics, journalism education and training programmes and organisations devoted to critiquing and enhancing the media. The explicit or implicit purpose of these systems is to enable the media to play its role in representative democracy, ensuring citizens can obtain information and communicate. So it is against these broader democratic goals that M*A*S and journalism itself must finally be evaluated. One way of doing this is to look at the end product—the media content produced by journalists—and examine how it reflects and responds to sources and events beyond the media itself. To explore further the implications of such an approach, in this article I have chosen a single case study—the Australian media’s coverage of Aboriginal deaths in custody over a 20-year period.
2. Six Oceania microstates: The genesis of media accountability
Shailendra Singh pp 42-60
Abstract: Media accountability systems (M*A*S) have been slow to take root in Oceania. Apart from Papua New Guinea, Fiji is the trend-setter in the region. Following the establishment of the Fiji Media Council in the mid 1990s, several other South Pacific island countries were keen to the follow the lead. Tonga now has a similar body with a code of ethics and which includes public members empowered to receive and adjudicate on complaints against the media. In Samoa, a study has been carried out in order to establish a media council-type body. The Solomon Islands Media Council (SIMC) is an industry organisation that does not yet have a complaints procedure. It is considering including this mechanism in line with the Papua New Guinea Media Council with which it shares a website and has a cooperative agreement. This article examines the debate in six South Pacific island countries that have adopted, or are in the process of adopting, self-regulatory M*A*S mechanisms following government pressure. They are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The article also argues that there are other M*A*S that regional media can adopt besides media councils and this action would make it harder for governments to intervene and introduce regulation.
3. Different strokes for different folk: Regulatory distinctions in New Zealand media
Gavin Ellis pp 63-83
Abstract: For much of the past century there was broad acceptance of the stark contrast between the state’s involvement in the regulation of the content of broadcasting and its laissez-faire relationship with the columns of the press. The ‘failed market’ argument that substantiated regulation of the airwaves was difficult to counter. Fundamental changes in technology and media markets have, however, rendered the rationale open to challenge. Some aspects of the ‘failed market’, such as frequency scarcity, simply do not apply in the digital age. This article examines the nature of media regulation in New Zealand, noting its similarity to the dichotomous approach in Britain, Canada and Australia but also its divergence toward a more neo-liberal market model that largely limits statutory oversight to matters that fall broadly into the categories of morals and ethics. It argues that, given the New Zealand Government’s decision more than 15 years ago to forego regulation of ownership or the mechanisms that would serve the public good aspirations of a Reithian model, the continuing role of the state in regulation of broadcasting is questionable. A replacement model could be based on an effective regulatory body already present in the New Zealand media industry—the Advertising Standards Authority.
4. Plagiarism and fabulism: Dishonesty in the newsroom
Alan Samson pp 84-100
Abstract: In New Zealand, various journalism ethics codes either specifically condemn news media plagiarism—the passing off by a reporter of another’s work or part work as one’s own—or demand standards of accuracy and honesty that would preclude its use. Obviously the codes also preclude fabulism—outright story invention. In regard to the two, ascribing blame for plagiarism is the more problematic. This is because the public nature of news and the press’s imperative to background and disseminate invariably lead to shades of grey. There is no such ambiguity for fabulism. This article therefore concentrates on plagiarism, discussing fabulism only because the two sins are often confused, especially when some high-profile transgressors have been guilty of both. Because plagiarism’s definitional boundaries can be blurred, this paper examines—in the context of print journalism—the complexity of the problem and the difficulties inherent in finding workable solutions. To do this, on the path toward a definitional understanding, if not absolute definition, it considers underlying legal and ethical frameworks, historical and cultural origins, and the temptations and grey areas thrown up by the internet. In response to anecdotal public relations industry concerns it also includes a brief discussion of the rights and wrongs of reproducing press release material in its entirety.
5. Holding the line? Keeping independent may be a close-run thing for media in PNG
Lee Duffield pp 102-126
Abstract: This investigation deploys journalistic expertise and method to bring information about media and government relations in Papua New Guinea up to date. The researcher identifies the news agenda by means of a press review over two weeks; discusses the issues raised with informed interviewees from government, media and universities; and checks the information against published research. The report traces a tense media-government relationship, marked by mutual recrimination over access to information. While government observes principles of free speech, and day-by-day relations are cordial, there have been recurrent moves towards regulation of news media, and many instances of intimidation of journalists. A general context of economic stress, official corruption, and violence exacerbates negative feelings, despite efforts on both sides to maintain détente. The relationship is seen heading towards a possible show-down over Rimbunan Hijau, the timber company widely accused of environmental crimes, abuse of citizens and corruption of high officials.
6. The political cartoonist and the editor
Haydon Manning and Robert Phiddian pp 127-150
Abstract: New Zealand Herald cartoonist Malcolm Evans was dismissed from the paper after he refused to follow his editor’s instruction to cease cartooning on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Members of the Jewish community were upset by a number of his cartoons, drawn during the first half of 2003. Evans is not alone among cartoonists to attract the anger of Jewish community lobbies and the hesitation of their editors when presenting cartoons dealing with the activities of the Israeli government. Cartoonists Tony Auth (Philadelphia Inquirer) and Michael Leunig (The Age) have also presented controversial cartoon commenting on the Israeli Government and, with Evans, defend their work on the grounds that while cartoons may offend an audience the content is not necessarily wrong. Cartoonists fiercely defend their licence to mock politicians, governments and states. This article examines this defence and the space within which cartoonists examine political subjects. We analyse the parameters within which mass circulation newspaper editors operate, principally in the Australian context. We defend a wide licence for cartoonists and argue that this licence represents an important measure of free speech in an era when the threat of terrorism looms large on national political agenda.
7. Reporting the Asian tsunami
James Hollings pp 151-167
Abstract: This article explores the ethical issues faced by New Zealand journalists reporting a disaster. Journalists who travelled to Asia to report on the 2004 tsunami were asked to complete an online survey containing a mixture of Likert scale and open-ended questions. Of the 20 journalists known to have travelled to Asia to cover the tsunami, 13, or 65 percent, took part in the survey. Many were confronted with ethical dilemmas. These problems were compared to the literature on reporting disasters, and triangulated through a one-on-one interview with a psychologist working with survivors of the tsunami. This comparison raised further issues not mentioned by the respondents. A second survey was sent out to elicit responses to these further issues. Four out of 20 replied, and their responses were compared to the literature and to the relevant codes of ethics. The results suggest New Zealand journalists have a strongly ethical approach but that there is a lack of awareness of some significant ethical issues. This indicates the level of support and training given to those covering such events needs revision. Further research on the issues raised would be fruitful.
Articles
The political gorilla and the Pacific Forum: getting it right?
Alan Knight pp 170-190
Abstract: Fiji’s Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, has often complained of ‘inaccuracy, misinformation, distortion and bias’ in reporting the Pacific region. Yet there is more to ‘getting it right’ than accurately reporting Qarase’s facts. What of journalists’ unstated cultures and conventions which frame international news so that international reporting of Pacific events may bear little resemblance to community priorities? Are the resulting perceptions of misinformation and distortion created by differing national agendas, corporate interests, cultural assumptions or even lingering colonial prejudices? This article examines Australian press reporting of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) summit meeting held in Samoa in August 2004 and compares it to that of the Pacific and New Zealand regional press. Reporters’ and editors’ views are contextualised with the official communiqué issued at the end of the conference.
Maori media production, civic journalism and the foreshore and seabed controversy in Aotearoa
Darrin Hodgetts, Alison Barnett, Andrew Duirs, Jolene Henry and Anni Schwanen pp 191-208
Abstract: This article explores the social significance of increased media production by Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand as an opportunity for challenging a tendency in mainstream journalism to promote Pakeha perspectives. The analysis focuses on the recent documentary Hikoi, which was initiated by two young Maori women as a challenge to media framing of Maori protests as ‘unjustified’ and ‘disruptive’ acts. We argue that this documentary illustrates the potential for civic journalists to broaden public deliberations regarding political issues such as the foreshore and seabed controversy.
Grierson’s ghost never dies: The Fiji Film Unit 1970-1985
Philip Robertson pp 209-225
Abstract: This article explores what happens when a documentary film form developed within a specific social, ideological, institutional, and aesthetic context—namely, the so-called British Documentary Movement, under the aegis of John Grierson—is deployed in very different cultural spaces: the colonial and post-colonial. There are several layers of argument involved, but I will pursue only one of them in the space available here. At a kind of metatheoretical level, it is arguable that Indigenous and Asian cultures are inimical to core values of the Western documentary project: in particular, to the belief in, and rhetorical power of, the material, historical word. In these societies, what might be called ‘spiritual’ or ‘other’ worlds have as much everyday reality as Griersonian ‘actuality’.
Fiji coups retrospective
1. The media and the coup leader: Sitiveni Rabuka
Anthony Mason pp 227-232
Abstract: Brigadier-General Sitiveni Rabuka, the former prime minister of Fiji who gained notoriety for staging twin coups in 1987, has enjoyed a love-hate relationship with the Fiji and Pacific media for almost two decades. University of Canberra PhD student, Anthony Mason, interviewed Rabuka in the course of his research into Australian media coverage of the coups. He also interviewed the former editor of The Fiji Times, Vijendra Kumar. Pacific Journalism Review is publishing the transcripts of these interviews, where both Rabuka and Kumar reflect on the May 1987 coup and its aftermath—helping to put the May 2000 coup into perspective.
2. Fiji journalism pioneer remembers
Anthony Mason pp 233-237
Reviews
Journalism Ethics: Arguments and Cases
By Martin Hirst and Roger Patching. Reviewed by Mark Pearson pp 239-241
Quagmires and Quandaries: Exploring Journalism Ethics
By Ian Richards. Reviewed by Mark Pearson pp 239-241
Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and its Triumphs
By John Pilger. Reviewed by Wendy Bacon pp 242-244
Media Ethics and Accountability Systems and An Arsenal for Democracy
By Claude-Jean Bertrand. Reviewed by David Robie pp 245-249
Media Law in New Zealand
By John Burrows and Ursula Cheer. Reviewed by Alan Samson pp 249-253
The Journalist’s Guide to Media Law
By Mark Pearson. Reviewed by Alan Samson pp 249-253
