Media ethics workshop concludes

January 02, 2009: he three-day workshop on media ethics organised for Bhutanese media professionals came to an end yesterday, with Dr Venkat Iyer, barrister and lecturer at the University of Ulster, speaking about the journalistic ethics of reporting on vulnerable individuals and groups in society.

The session also covered the pros and cons of prejudicial references to an individual’s race, colour, gender, religion and many others aspects of reportage.

Participants were briefed too about the regulation of ethics, a topic under which was discussed the existing and possible future accountability systems for the enforcement of journalistic ethics.

Particular attention was paid to self-regulatory mechanisms such as media councils and codes of conduct policed by professional organization.

The relationship between such mechanisms and legal measures of regulation was also examined. At the end of the workshop, the participants expressed their satisfaction and claimed that the process has helped them learn more about journalistic ethics.

The workshop was organised by Bhutan Broadcasting Service in collaboration with Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcast Development (AIBD).

Around 30 people from the media fraternity and representatives from the Royal Court of Justice and Bhutan Infocomm and Media Authority (BICMA) participated in the workshop.

(From Bhutan Today, January 2, 2009)