Raise ethics in journalism for good governance

Ethical standards in journalism should be raised to strengthen democracy and good governance in the country, said the speakers at a roundtable yesterday.
“Against many odds, journalists in Bangladesh are doing well, but the ethics and standards in journalism must be raised for good governance,” said veteran journalist ABM Musa while speaking as chief guest at a roundtable titled 'Ethics and Standards for Journalists'.
The roundtable was organised by Journalism Training and Research Initiative (Jatri) of the Institute of Governance Studies (IGS) of BRAC University at its auditorium in the city where Jatri presented a survey on the ethics and standards of Dhaka-based journalists.
According to the survey conducted on 335 journalists, most of them rated Bangladesh's journalism poor in terms of ethical standards as there is no written code of conduct available in most of the media houses.
Stating that journalists go through poor economic condition, the survey also mentioned that 62 percent journalists get less than Tk 15,000 per month, while 56 percent of them do not get wage board pay scale.
“The educational status of journalists has been found quite impressive. Sixty- seven percent of the respondents were found masters degree holders, 30 percent bachelor degree holders while 41 percent have studied journalism,” said Manzur Elahi, lead researcher of the survey.
Lauding Jatri for conducting such survey for the first time, ABM Musa said many of the media houses nowadays have editors or news editors who are actually the owners of the media.
“Thus, the editorial institution in the media houses has almost vanished,” he added.
“It is alarming that many owners are becoming editors of the newspapers,” said senior journalist and columnist Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury, adding that this is one of the major impediment to raising standards of journalism.
Journalist Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul said there could be a guideline for the media houses to help improve ethical standards.
“Many houses do not follow wage board in paying salaries to the journalists. This should end,” he added.
IGS Director Manzoor Hasan, Jatri Head of Programme Jamil Ahmed and Taleya Rehman of Democracy Watch also spoke on the occasion.