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CIAO DATE: 03/02
From the Editors
The United States constitutional guarantees of free press and free expression have ensured a press largely without governmental regulation. This does not mean media without standards. In this journal, noted U.S. experts explore the central role of media ethics as the core values which shape the functioning of U.S. journalism.
In the American system, our free media is an essential source of the information that is at the heart of a free society. This critical role endows the media with its own power, which, when used irresponsibly, can threaten a free society. How, then, do we manage this challenge?
In many nations, the government takes on the role of primary regulator of the media. In the United States, our solution has been to rely on market forces, competition, responsibility, and a highly evolved set of self-controls that we call journalism ethics.
Journalism ethics provide a process by which individual mistakes and excesses are corrected without jeopardizing the ultimate objective of a free media — to provide a healthy check on centers of power in order to maintain a free and enlightened society.
Broadcast media and the Internet have created a new set of challenges that are on occasion addressed in the United States in a governmental regulatory framework, but always in the context of basic constitutional principles and protections of our free press.
Journalists everywhere have a vital role to provide the public with knowledge and understanding. But as they practice their craft in a world that is both technologically and geographically changing, systematic standards must guide their work. Only in that way will journalists serve their society in an ethically responsible and constructive fashion.