A presentation is given at the 2nd South, Central and East Europe Investigative Journalism Days. CIME Board member Yaroslava Sennikova was invited to present a session on ethics at the 2nd South, Central and East Europe Investigative Journalism Days. The conference took place in Belgrade, Serbia, from June 27-29, 2011, and focused on corruption in the media.

Investigating corruption, maintaining personal security and reporting on extremist politicians were all topics of interest at this year’s conference. In addition, a training session was offered to the conference’s more than 120 registered journalists who hailed from Europe and abroad.

At the conference Yaroslava gave a presentation on how journalists can rely on certain ethical standards and best media practices in order to limit or avoid the threat of legal reprisal when covering extremist politicians. Following the presentation, Yaroslava led an exchange of ideas with the audience.

Yaroslava discussed how journalists can report on extremist politicians without getting trapped into promoting their radical values or turning into social extremists themselves. The keys to addressing this issue can be found within various major ethical approaches.

One such ethical standard, accuracy, reminds journalists to tell the story using facts and data that can be proved and documents that can be brought to court. Journalists should quote sources in a very accurate and clear context.

Another key element in covering extremist politicians is impartiality—facts must be separated from comments. This ethical obligation lies with both the individual journalist and the editor, as well as with the upper management of the media house.

Finally, a third ethical tool journalists can use is revealing the background of extremist politicians by shining a spotlight on their past racism or violence.

Responsibility is crucial in this type of reporting. Certain journalistic obligations flow from reporters’ social role. It is crucial, for example, that journalism is original and not derivative. Too often inaccurate observations become widely disseminated through repetition. Well-established and reputable media houses are often as blameworthy as small and ill-resourced ones in doing this, as journalists often use the Internet in their research and reproduce claims they are unable to substantiate. Journalists should always be aware of the potential impact of their reports. At worst, inflammatory media reports can incite protests or violence.

Yaroslava was invited to speak at this year’s South, Central and East Europe Investigative Journalism Days by the International Press Institute. The IPI and other organizations—including the South East Europe Media Organisation, the Austrian Development Cooperation’s Austrian Development Agency, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Mission in Serbia, and the International News Safety Institute—collaborated to put on the event.