Ethics Newsline®

Committee to Protect Journalists lists places where murders of reporters go unsolved; journalists cry foul in Australia after police raid a newspaper; Italian government website publishes income tax data for all to see

VARIOUS DATELINES
Issues in international media ethics made headlines last week. Among the stories:

• A report on nations that fail to capture and prosecute those who murder journalists puts Iraq at the top of the list, but also cites several democracies, including India, the Philippines, and Russia. The report, compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), ranks 13 nations that each have at least five unsolved cases involving the killing of a journalist, according to Editor & Publisher. While the top five countries are in actual or virtual war zones — Iraq, Sierra Leon, Somalia, Columbia, and Sri Lanka — the CPJ maintains that most of the cases are reporters singled out for assassination, not accidental victims of war. India, the Philippines, and Russia are dangerous primarily because of the prevalence of organized crime and corruption, the report claims.
• A police raid on a newspaper in Perth, Australia, has been roundly condemned by the paper’s owner and other journalists, who claim it was politically motivated. The Australian Age reports that 16 police officers raided the offices of the Sunday Times, seeking the source of a government leak that was cited in a story claiming the Western Australia government was funding political advertising. Police blocked all of the exits to the building and subjected staff to searches of their bags when they left, according to the Age. Government officials did not immediately comment on the raid.
• Many Italians were outraged — as well as uncontrollably curious — last week when the government published tax-return data on a state website. ABC News reports that the site was taken down later in the day after a complaint from the nation’s privacy agency, but not before Italians had overrun the site, looking for data on how much money other people had earned. The government said it made the data public as part of a crackdown on tax evasion, according to ABC.

Sources: Editor & Publisher, May 1 — Australian Age, May 1 — ABC News, May 1.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, Apr. 21 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 1, 2007 — Related Newsline story, May 2, 2005 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 21, 2003.