A code of ethics for leading national news media has existed for more than 100 years and has been regularly discussed and updated. The code of ethics is issued by the Media Administration Agency, which is an umbrella organisation for the main publishers’ associations and the journalists’ union. The code of ethics is well known in the newsrooms and often referred to in the debate on media performance.
Sweden also has many specialised journalists’ associations for different purposes, such as investigative journalism, environmental journalism, science reporting, and so forth, that discuss ethical issues within these sectors. Interviews at the national and regional levels verify the importance attached to the recommendations made in the national code of ethics. The increase in live reporting of breaking news on the Internet has led to in-house training programmes of what the code implies for on-air decision-making for a wider group of reporters and editors. Interviews also reveal that links to the code are used by reporters to inform their sources of their rights.
