Legal and Ethical Standards in Political Journalism

The article is devoted to the legislative and ethical requirements for political journalists. The author analyzes the main regulatory documents and media practices in order to understand to what extent the legal and ethical standards are being implemented in political journalism. The main subjects of coverage within this subject area are the internal and external policies of the state and, in particular, political conflicts. The author pays particular attention to the war propaganda prohibition established in a number of international documents and in Russian laws. The UN documents against propaganda and arsonists of war condemn any form of propaganda aimed at or capable of endangering peace. However, journalists, politicians and guests at Russian TV shows constantly speak on the possibility and necessity of war, show weapon parades, missile tests, tank attacks and bomb strikes, talk about the potential use of nuclear weapons. One can conclude that in practice the regulatory prohibitions of war propaganda, including the corresponding article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, "do not work". The internal policy of the state covers a wide range of areas, but political journalists most often cover and analyze the activities of executive and legislative government bodies. The defining element of this work is the legal regulation of the citizens' right to seek, receive and disseminate information. The author reviews the fundamental international legal acts and analyzes in more detail the Russian law "On Ensuring Access to Information on the Activities of State Bodies and Local Self-Government Bodies". There is a special term for the media coverage of the activities of legislative bodies: parliamentary journalism. The author reminds that the PACE's Resolution 820 (1984) on Relations of National Parliaments with the Media proposed to intensify the efforts of the media to explain the audience the basics of parliamentarism (the work of committees, etc.). However, parliamentary journalists sometimes take greater interest in discussing deputies' private life, scandals and behind-the-scenes games. Problems of covering individual politicians' activities are governed by the Declaration on Freedom of Political Debate in the Media adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 2004. It establishes the right of the media to disseminate negative information and critical opinions about politicians and public officials. The author cites examples: a number of decisions of the European Court of Human Rights as well as a case recently considered by the city court in Arkhangelsk Oblast. A lawsuit against a TV company initiated by the mayor was dismissed on the grounds that the participants of the program had not just criticized government decisions but had exercised their constitutional rights in order to draw attention to a socially significant problem. The author's main conclusion is that the professional and ethical standards developed by the world journalistic community often remain a declaration. At the same time, they help political journalists to make right decisions when disseminating ambiguous, conflicting information, e.g., to distinguish between information and propaganda.

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