BAJ Declaration of Principles on the Journalist Ethics

RESPECTING our pro­fes­sion and under­stand­ing its great social impor­tance;

BEING GUIDED by the inten­tion to strength­en pub­lic con­fi­dence in mass media as one of the democ­ra­cy main­tain­ing insti­tu­tions;

ACKNOWLEDGING the IFJ Dec­la­ra­tion of Prin­ci­ples on the Con­duct of Jour­nal­ists as a stan­dard of pro­fes­sion­al behav­ior while obtain­ing, stor­ing, dis­sem­i­nat­ing and com­ment­ing on infor­ma­tion;

UNDERSTANDING that the pro­fes­sion impos­es great respon­si­bil­i­ty on jour­nal­ists;

mem­bers of the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists declare that they will observe the fol­low­ing prin­ci­ples of the pro­fes­sion­al ethics:

RESPECT the public’s right to know the truth, remem­ber­ing at the same time that none has a monop­oly over the truth.

PROTECT the right to obtain and dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion and free­dom of expres­sion.

STRIVE FOR max­i­mum accu­ra­cy of infor­ma­tion, in-depth and true argu­men­ta­tion while express­ing opin­ions.

ADMIT pub­licly and con­scious­ly one’s own mis­take.

CONSIDER unac­cept­able pla­gia­rism, inten­tion­al mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion and mis­in­ter­pre­ta­tion, unground­ed accu­sa­tions, accep­tance of a bribe for dis­sem­i­na­tion or refusal to dis­sem­i­nate some infor­ma­tion.

RESPECT oth­er peo­ples’ points of view and fos­ter pub­lic dis­cus­sion in mass media.

PREVENT racial, nation­al, reli­gious, sex, gen­der, polit­i­cal and oth­er kinds of dis­crim­i­na­tion.

PROTECT rights and inter­ests of third par­ties while seek­ing, stor­ing and dis­sem­i­nat­ing infor­ma­tion.

PROTECT con­fi­den­tial­i­ty of sources of infor­ma­tion.

NOT TO PLEASE author­i­ties, but remem­ber that one of the func­tions of the mass media is to con­trol author­i­ties’ actions.

EXPRESS sol­i­dar­i­ty with the col­leagues who are per­se­cut­ed for jour­nal­ist activ­i­ties.

STICK TO the juris­dic­tion of the jour­nal­is­tic com­mu­ni­ty and try to solve con­flicts with col­leagues avoid­ing author­i­ties’ inter­ven­tion.