Activity Details (ID# 18287)

Activity Synopsis

The aim of the activity was to assist the drafting group of this code in their work revising the first draft of the code before its final adoption and to ensure in particular that it was in line with Council of Europe standards in the field. 

In his comments the expert welcomed the initiative of the Armenian media representatives to draft a code of conduct and made several suggestion for the revision of the first draft. The principle recommendations were:

1) to place the code within a specific context and to make reference to founding values that guided the drafting;

2) to ensure that the different main principles of the code follow a specific order;
3) to include only rules and principles in the code and to leave it up to the different media outlets to develop internally more concrete guidelines that flow from these principles and rules, according to their nature and specific needs;

4) to include rules covering the most important issues of professional ethics (for example: Accuracy; Impartiality; Politics and Public Policy and Election Coverage; War, Terror and Emergencies; Fairness; Privacy; Crime; Harm and Offence; Protecting vulnerable minorities; Editorial Integrity and Independence; Advertising; Sponsorship);

5) to create a separate section on Media Coverage of Elections and Politics and Public Policy, having regard to the principles listed in Recommendation (99)15 of the Committee of Ministers on measures concerning media coverage of elections.
 

The comments were transmitted to the drafting group which took the proposals into account during the final revision of the code. On 10 March 2007 the Code of Conduct of Media Representatives was adopted by 18 Armenian media outlets. 

N/A 

Mr Christophoros Christophorou, Political analyst, former Director of Cyprus Radio Television Authority 

Ms Franziska Klopfer, Media and Information Society Division