Media coverage of the Covid-19 crisis: recommendations and proposals for self-regulation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.nov.22Keywords:
Ethics, Journalism, Accountability, Crisis, Covid-19, Coronavirus, Self-regulation, Truth, Responsibility, Justice, Freedom, Recommendations, Pandemics, Deontological codes, Deontology, Profession, State of the art, Review, JournalistsAbstract
This paper presents, analyzes, and compares the main deontological recommendations published by various international institutions and organizations since the start of the Covid-19 crisis. A total of 10 codes were identified from the period between February and April 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak to be a global pandemic. Additionally, three general and transnational model deontological texts published before the crisis are included in the analysis. The methodology applied includes a content analysis based on four categories corresponding to the fundamental pillars of most of the deontological codes: truth, freedom, responsibility, and justice. Furthermore, the paper determines the most common ethical guidelines and criteria present in all of the analyzed texts, and with the goal of helping information and journalistic professionals, these guidelines are used as a reference point to outline recommendations for responsible coverage of the Covid-19 crisis.
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