Journalistic Code of Ethics in Africa
Africa is the world’s second largest continent in terms of both size as well as population in the world. The landmass is surrounded by the Mediterranean sea to the north, Red sea nd Suez Canal to the northeast, Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent also includes Madagascar and a number of archipelagos which are included in the 54 fully recognized sovereign states alongside nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The African Union, successor to the Organization of African Unity, was established in 2002 to offer hope for greater co-operation and peace between the continent’s many countries.
The code of conducts for journalists and their institutions in African nations are as follows:- • Botswana Press Council (2003) • Democratic Republic of Congo - Congolese National press union (2004) • Press Union of Zaire (1990) • Egypt - Supreme council of the Press (1983) • Ethiopia - Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Assiociation (1998) • Ghana - Ghana Journalist Association (1994) • Guinea - Association of Guinean Journalists (1991/2004) • Guyana - Code of Conduct for Coverage of Elections (2001) • East Africa Free Press Assembly (2002) • Ivory Coast - Rights and Duties of the Ivorian Journalist (1992) • Kenya - Kenyan Union of Journalists - Media Council of Kenya (2007) • Liberia - Press Union of Liberia (1997) • Malawi - Media Council (1995) • Mali - Code of Ethics of the Malian Journalist (1991) • Niger - Charter of Professional Journalists (1997) • Nigeria - Nigerian Guilt Editors (1872) • Rwanda - Charter of Duties and Rights • Senegal - Sud Quotidien (1993) • Somaliland - Code of Conduct for 2005 Elections • South Africa - Broadcasting Complaints Commission - City Press (1982) - Code of Conduct of the Press Ombudsman and Appeal Panel - Independent News and Media - Johannesburg Star (1999) - Media Council - PRess Council (2011) - South African Broadcasting Corporation - Union of Journalists • Swaziland - National Association of Journalists (2007) • Tanzania – Code for election reporting (2010) - Code of Ethical Practice for broadcasters - Code of Ethical Practice for media managers and editors - Code of Ethical Practice for media owners and publishers - Code of Ethical Practice for media photographers and video producers - Code of Ethical Practice for news agency journalism - Code of Ethical Practice for public information and media advertisers - Guidelines for Ethical Reporting on Children - Journalists’ code of ethics and the rights of children - Media Code of Conduct for Election Reporting (2010) - Media Gender Code of Ethics (2009) • Togo – Togolese Media Observatory (1999) • Tonga - Media Council Broadcasting Code - Media Council General Code for News Media • Uganda – National Institute of Journalists (1999) • Zambia – Media Council • Zimbabwe – Zimbabwean Media Practitioners (2007)
The listed code of conducts have both common issues and some unique stand points. Most of the code of conducts from the African nations’ journalistic or press code of conduct have got the basic codes like defending freedom of speech, expression and information, refraining from plagiarism, defamation, slander and unformed accusations. The similar codes also include the duties of journalists should be truth based, avoid distortions on their report, abstaining to act from any attitude written, spoken or filmed likely to incite ethnic, racial, regional or religious conflict. Similarly, the journalists should show fairness, accuracy, honesty, responsibilities, decency and should seek the triumph of truth by an accurate, honest and fair report of ascertained and verified facts. As for advertisements and public announcements shall be accurate and clearly distinguishable from news. The journalists shall avoid practices which would tend to interfere with the right of an individual to a fair trial. Also, most of the code of conducts in the African nations have special provisions of revision given the revision fulfils certain criterias. Another commonality is the way photographs and visual stories should give an accurate picture of an event and not highlight an incident out of context.
In the same way, Some of the African Journalistic code of ethics also include Gender based code of ethics like the one in Botswana, (Press Council of Botswana Gender Code of Ethics ). It includes various code of conducts related to gender equality which are postulated to minimize gender based discrimination in the field of journalism. Also, many of the AFrican nations like Democratic Republic of Congo have multiple code of conducts published or postulated by multiple regulatory bodies (Congolese National Press Union and Press Union of Zaire). Meanwhile, some code of conducts like the one in Guyana, are made specifically to cover certain events (Code of Conduct for Coverage of Elections (2001)).














