The Society for Professional Journalists has termed “misguided” the Board of Education’s intention to use the society’s code of ethics as a basis for shunning some reporters and asked the panel to reconsider the proposed policy. Instead, the SPJ said in a letter to the panel, the board should work out its differences with reporters.
After reviewing the letter and discussing media and community reaction, some board members at a workshop meeting Tuesday said they felt the policy needed revision. The proposed policy would enable board members to decline to speak or share information with journalists and bloggers whom the board deems violate the society’s code of ethics.
It would give the board the power to “request the media outlet provide a different journalist to cover the Board of Education and school district,” according to a draft of the policy released by the district.
“In the event the media outlet does not replace the journalist, the Board of Education and its staff members will not be required to provide information regarding activities in the school district or respond to questions and inquiries … beyond the professional courtesies extended by the school staff members to a person of the general public,” the draft states.
But in a letter Monday signed by SPJ President John Ensslin and Kevin Smith, the society’s ethics committee chairman, the organization asked the board to reconsider the move and postpone the vote on the policy.
“While we understand your mounting frustrations with the media, we believe codifying our Code of Ethics as policy allows board members to legislate morality in a way that is detrimental to moving forward with government-media relations,” the letter states.
The SPJ said in the letter that it does not disagree with the board’s right to question the ethics of journalists, but that it is “misguided to enact the code as a form of policy that gives the board the legal means to shun the media and deny access to events and documents when it deems members irresponsible.”
The society’s code of ethics are a voluntary set of standards practiced by many media outlets but are not universally adopted. For example, the Asbury Park Press, which is owned by the Gannett Co., follows the Gannett Newspaper Division’s code of ethics. The society believes that “forcing compliance would infringe on individual rights to free expression and certainly press rights,” according to the letter.
The proposal would remove the possibility of mediation, the letter states, and “allows the board to be the sole arbitrator of what is ethical or not, based on its interpretation of this code.” Instead, the society encouraged the board to mediate differences with reporters. The board is expected to postpone action on the proposed policy at its Dec. 20 meeting, pending a revision.