Collection of codes of journalism ethics in Europe
EthicNet is a collection of codes of journalism ethics from most European countries – Europe understood widely as by the Council of Europe. The collection has accumulated from numerous research projects carried out since the late 1970s at the University of Tampere in cooperation with UNESCO and the International Organization of Journalists.
When EthicNet was established in 1995, the collection included 31 codes from 30 countries. An update was done by a project on the development of journalism ethics in Europe in 2008 with altogether 50 codes from 46 countries – from Albania to the United Kingdom. The latest updating has been done in 2018.
EthicNet provides not only access to individual codes but also an overview of the codes as indicator of thinking among mainstream journalists in the region. An inventory of the contents of the codes can be found in the Search part of this website. There one can also look up individual keywords throughout the codes.
While this collection focuses on Europe, there are other databases covering the whole world. One of them is hosted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri in the USA. Another valuable resource for codes of ethics is the MediaWise Trust in the UK.
The EthicNet collection presents the codes in English regardless of their original language. Translations have been mostly delivered by the parties concerned. All the texts have been checked for English language in Tampere, but the translation process, as well as different conditions of the codes, may have caused misleading formulations. Therefore all parties are invited to check their respective codes and to bring their observations to our attention.
In addition, there is a standing invitation to all relevant parties to send us updates.
Tampere, December 2018