A committee of the Canadian Association of Journalists has completed a draft of the organization's first statement of principles. Now, it is time to hear from the rest of the CAJ members on the committee's work.

Linked to this document, you will find a draft of the statement of principles and a set of more specific ethical guidelines. It is the result of over six months of discussion.

The goal is to produce a final draft of the statement of principles for adoption by the CAJ at its annual conference in May. The guidelines can be adopted at the same time as the statement, or added later. But, first, the committee wants to benefit from the insights of other CAJ members. The committee will use this member feedback to guide its construction of the final draft of the statement.

Please send all comments, preferably by e-mail, to Stephen Ward, chair of the Committee for a Statement of Principles, at sjward@interchange.ubc.ca or fax to 604-822-6707. I may not be able to respond to every comment but I assure all members that their feedback will be taken into account.

As a journalist and a professor who teaches journalism ethics, I have been encouraged by the committee's frank yet positive discussion about the shape and content of a statement of principles. I expect no less from the rest of the CAJ members. However, I ask members to make their comments as constructive and specific as possible. If we've left something out, or if you disagree with some sentence or passage, by all means let us know. But, in addition, perhaps you could offer us some alternate language, or provide a concrete suggestion on how to improve some area.

When writing your comments please bear in mind the following points:

This is a draft.

We do not consider the document as final, perfect or immutable. It is a working document to encourage feedback and allow improvement.

This is a statement of principles.

The statement must be relatively brief and deal only with major ethical standards and ideals. It must apply to many forms of journalism and many kinds of journalists.

Therefore, the statement's language must be general, yet it should say something significant. This is not an easy task. This statement is not a lengthy code of ethics, or a manual on how to practice good journalism. Nor does it address the practices of specific news organizations. The tone should be positive, expressing what the CAJ believes in, and linking its standards to excellence in journalism. It should not sound like a lecture by a finger-wagging teacher to a group of children about what they should not do. Instead, the statement should affirm the best qualities of our journalism.

The CAJ directors created a committee to produce its first explicit statement of principles at its meeting in St. John's, Nfld., last May. The directors felt it was important that their association state what it stands for. In addition, a statement would help guide CAJ spokespersons when they comment on issues.

By June, an eight-member committee was established. Its discussions have been conducted by e-mail and conference telephone calls. The committee reviewed many journalism codes and statements of principles. It identified the main principles worthy of inclusion in the draft, and committee members wrote draft language for specific sections. Then the sections were compiled and edited to form the draft document. From the beginning, the committee faced those difficult questions that arise when any ethics statement is being constructed: What is the purpose of the statement? What are the principles that should be included? How long should the statement be? How detailed? How can we express standards in general terms without draining the language of meaningful content? The committee decided that a set of guidelines would keep the statement general and brief, while allowing for the expression of more specific standards.

The attempt to formulate a statement of principles is, in itself, a healthy process since it encourages us to step back and think about the aims and standards of our craft at a time of rapid change. This self-scrutiny should not stop at a statement of principles. It should be an on-going process that leads to regular revisions of our core ethical statements and to discussions of ethical issues at CAJ events.

I extend my thanks to the members of the committee for their hard work so far on this project, and to President Rob Cribb for his support.

The committee is:

1. Sharon Burnside, The Toronto Star

2. John Dickins, CAJ executive director

3. Erica Johnson, CBC

4. Kirk Lapointe, CTV News

5. Nick Russell of Victoria

6. Elaine Shein, The Western Producer

7. Fred Vallance-Jones, The Hamilton Spectator

8. Stephen Ward, committee chair, UBC School of Journalism

Yours truly,
Stephen J. Ward
Associate Professor
The School of Journalism
University of British Columbia

Website: www.journalism.ubc.ca