Bhutanese scribes learn about media ethics
A workshop organised by UNESCO in partnership with Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development offered training on media ethics to participants from the Bhutan Broadcasting Service and other media professionals of the country. It was aimed towards helping them address ethical aspects of the journalistic practice in a globalised world.
The Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD), with the support of UNESCO’s Office in New Delhi, organised a workshop on media ethics for Bhutanese media professionals.
- Participants of the workshop/ Photo credit: AIBD
The workshop was attended by around 30 participants from the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BSS) and the emerging print media in the country.
The training took place last January in Thimphu (Bhutan) and was a follow-up to the workshop on media law that was held in the beginning of 2009. This first workshop showed the need for training on media ethics in order to create awareness among Bhutanese media professionals about this issue. Such need is determined by the increasing number of ethical challenges that Bhutanese journalists are facing in the context of globalisation.
The latest workshop aimed, therefore, to examine the relationship between media ethics and the law. It offered participants an understanding of, and insights into, ethical aspects of the journalistic practice, with a particular focus on issues relevant to media operating in a developing country, although some comparative analysis from the developed world was also incorporated into the programme.
The sessions covered such topics as newsgathering techniques, privacy and intrusion, decency, treatment of vulnerable individuals, and regulation of ethics. They were highly interactive, with participants contributing to the discussions at every stage, and made an extensive use of case studies.
