The Center for Journalism Ethics has published a report on nonprofit journalism to challenge participants at its second annual conference.
The April 27 report is one of the first comprehensive reports on ethical issues facing nonprofit investigative newsrooms. As mainstream news media struggle with cutbacks, journalists have looked to nonprofit models of journalism as an alternate way to maintain journalism in the public interest.
The report, Ethics for the new investigative newsroom (PDF), is a collaboration of three journalism centers. It puts forward ethical principles and best practices. It outlines legal considerations and explores nonprofit journalism in Canada.
The report warns that newsrooms must protect the integrity of their journalism. Only transparency about sponsorship, clear rules on conflicts of interest, and frank communication with supporters will maintain public confidence in these new experiments in journalism.
“This report breaks new ground on the ethical questions,” said Stephen J.A. Ward, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics. “The report and the second conference also show that our new center is maturing into a leader in the study and discussion journalism ethics.”
The report was released in time for discussion at "New Journalism – New Ethics?" the center’s second conference on April 30 at UW-Madison, staged by the Center for Journalism Ethics.
- Upcoming Conference: April 30, 2010
The report presents the recommendations that emerged from a roundtable of leaders in nonprofit journalism held at the University of Wisconsin-Madison earlier this year.
The roundtable was a collaboration of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and the Knight Chair in Investigative & Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois.