OUR ETHOS (ratified by the COPC General Assembly on December 2001)
PREAMBLE We, journalists under the tenets of democracy and the right to freedom of expression, do hereby promulgate and adopt this Code of Ethics.
ACCURACY We shall be guided at all times by accuracy, fairness, independence and balance, and should not deliberately mislead or misinform the public. We shall aim to disclose all known, relevant facts.
COMMENT AND FACT We shall clearly distinguished comment or speculation from fact when practicing our craft.
ADVOCACY We have the right to adopt a forthright stance and advocate a position on any issue of public interest.
HONESTY We shall avoid misrepresentation or deceit to obtain information for publication unless there is a clear case of public interest and the information cannot be obtained in any other way.
PERSONAL INTEREST AND INFLUENCE We shall not accept any consideration, gift or advantage offered to us for the purpose of influence. In like manner, we shall disclose conflict of interest that affect, or could be seen to affect the accuracy, fairness or independence of our work.
ATTRIBUTION We shall aim to attribute information to its source. Notwithstanding this, we have a strong obligation to protect against disclosure of the identity of confidential sources. We shall not plagiarized.
RATIFICATION AND THE RIGHT OF REPLY We shall promptly correct mistakes and we are obliged to provide a fair right of reply.
PRIVACY We shall respect and observe the right to privacy except where there is a significant public interest.
DISCRIMINATION We shall not engage in discrimination or stereotyping by placing undue emphasis on gender, religion, minority, groups, sexual orientation,race, color, political conviction, cultural or ethnic origin, or physical or mental disability unless the description is in the public interest. We shall not normally identify victims of sexual assault or domestic violence or publish material likely to lead to the identification or public ridicule of victims of crime even when free by law to do so.
SENSITIVITY In situation of grief and shock, we shall act with special consideration and sensitivity for those people affected as well as for the public.