Among the five journalism associations existing in Greece, composing the Pan-Hellenic Federation of Journalists’ Association, JUADN is considered the primary one, incorporating two disciplinary bodies and an Ethics Council, consisting of ten regular and ten alternate members. It is noteworthy that news editors, and the second one by journalists, all of them elected by the Union’s members, compose the first body. The Internet Publishers Association incorporates 19 parent companies and 69 news websites and maintains its own Code of Ethics, applicable to web journalists, user-generated content producers, and media consumers.
Despite journalists’ declarations of loyalty and adherence to the journalistic Code of Ethics, research has shown that they are less sincere than it is thought. In leading news media, there are many cases where loose interpretation of the Code of Ethics proves to be a common practice among journalists, showing disrespect towards ethical standards.
A representative of JUADN described the way in which the Code of Ethics is employed:
It is for the benefit of both journalists and media to fully respect the Code of Ethics. However, this isn’t always the case. Often both media and journalists disregard the Ethics Code’s provisions, either in order to serve their personal interests or to serve their medium policy, or even to achieve higher goals for their medium (circulation, readership, viewership, etc.). This happens mostly in online journalism with click-bait techniques, such as the use of dramatic headlines to attract readers, as well as fake news process. In the long run, these practices have a negative impact on a medium’s reliability until they swipe it off the map.
The Code of Ethics in combination with the good journalistic practices is a well-known issue among journalists; however, considerable questions have often been raised about their reach and effectiveness. The non-permanent nature of the Ethics Council – along with numerous cases of ethics violations where Journalists’ Union of Athens Daily Newspapers has failed to express its position or take action – enhances doubts about the effectiveness of the Code of Ethics.
However, this does not seem to be the case in public service broadcaster ERT, according to an editor-in-chief:
Obviously, we implement the JUADN Code. We never had incidents of breaching the Code. The journalists working in the public service radio and television are very experienced professionals. On top of that, news topics are not published just like that. Many colleagues see them. It is highly unlikely that there would be a mistake regarding the Code.
However, the applicability and efficiency of the Code of Ethics can be a thought-provoking issue in the case of private broadcasters or press companies. Also, journalistic practices for online media also seem to be “lighter”. An interviewed journalist emphasised:
Yes, normally we have to respect the Code. But this has to do with every journalist on a personal level. We are not instructed to obey the Code like the Bible. While working, there is no time to check the Code.
Along the same lines, the chief-editor of a news website pointed out that the journalists working there usually have read the Code of Ethics, and they mostly adhere to it.
When interviewed journalists were asked whether there had been any instances where the Code of Ethics was neglected, and therefore measures had to be taken, the majority of the interviewees referred to their colleagues’ high professionalism to justify why they couldn’t think of any such case. It is indicative in the reference of an editor-in-chief working in a private radio station. He argued:
We follow the JUADN Code. If there is an incident of malpractice, we don’t fire the journalist, but give him/her a warning. But I am telling you again, our journalists are professionals with over 15 years of experience. Therefore, such incidents do not occur. It has occurred to me one or two times when I had to talk to a colleague and tell him to be careful. Not in the sense of “why and how”, rather not to risk his own or even the medium’s reputation.
These findings are in accordance with previous research (Dimitrakopoulou, 2017), which showed that Greek journalists perceive professional regulations and personal self-constraints – such as journalism ethics (77.7%) and personal values and beliefs (75%) – as the most important while reporting.
Contrary to journalists’ perception, research has highlighted numerous cases in which the Code of Ethics was seriously undermined, especially during the period following the 2008 economic crisis (Komninou, 2017).
