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December 02, 2004

Blog Ethics

A movement to introduce ethical guidelines to blogging is currently underway, according to this Cyberjournlalist article.

Gawker publisher Nick Denton says it's important that

Someone stands up, calls people out, and keeps the blogosphere honest. And maybe it's time that we rely, not on a volunteer watchdog, but on some sort of permanent institution. So I'm going to grit my teeth, and make a proposal: that a blog ethics committee be established...

This is not, at this stage, a blog publishers association, though it could be the first step towards one. The idea would be to start an open discussion -- at blogethics.org, for instance -- and then come up with some guidelines.

Cyberjournalist proposed a Bloggers Code of Ethics in April 2003. Their issues? That bloggers be fair, honest, accountable, and minimize harm.

Special thanks to Rob Washburn for the tip.


Posted by Samantha Israel at December 2, 2004 03:12 PM

Comments

Like the blog, very interesting. http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/000854.html

Don't know if you saw this or not but I thought you might be interested.

Posted by: Scott at December 2, 2004 10:27 PM

forgot to post about that. thanks scott.

Posted by: sam at December 3, 2004 04:55 PM

Personally, I think the idea of committees to watch over the ethics of any media group is a bad idea. It's one step closer to control of the media and the shackling of a free press.
Let blog publishers decide on their own about their own ethics. I do believe, however, that those bloggers who have sent themselves up to act as watchdogs of Big Media or guardians of some sort of public trust should decide on and the prominently publish their policies on conflicts-of-interest, self-interest, and self-dealing so that their readers may make some intelligent decisions about their credibility. Speaking of which ... [ http://davidakin.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/8/13/123323.html ]

Posted by: David Akin at December 5, 2004 10:25 AM

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