SOME ASPECTS OF A JOURNALIST’S PROFESSIONAL ETHICS – FOREIGN EXPERIENCE AND GEORGIAN REALITY

Abstract

Journalism is a synthetic profession. It comprises various functions and obligations. Meanwhile, it determines public opinion, intentions and desires. Journalism has the greatest levers for managing society. Consequently, journalists have special responsibility towards society. Namely this is the reason journalists should have thorough knowledge in the norms of professional ethics and have to follow them. Ethical norms make journalists’ activities rather transparent and ensure reliance on them. These issues cause interest in our country as Georgia has been facing a lot of ethical dilemmas for the last years, such as: interference in an individual’s personal life, candid camera, demonstrating violence, promoting drugs, alcohol, etc. The ethical problems existing in Georgian media are discussed on the example of BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) as BCC was established as the Public Broadcaster. It gradually improved its broadcasting strategy as well as its own ethical regulations. Ethical criteria of BBC have become a kind of measure and key point for many public broadcasters of the world, Georgia is among them. Ethical norms help journalists to determine the border between publicity and private life, what is more significant – sensation or a simple fact, how to follow the ethics in such delicate situations. In such cases the main thing is society’s interest. It does not imply hiding the truth or disguising it; just the contrary, only demonstrating the problem and following the ethical norms one can solve the existing problems and achieve progress.