Code of Conduct
The AFP Foundation is a non-profit-making organization dedicated to promoting the freedom of the press and freedom of expression in general.
We shall seek to do this by providing training to journalists around the world, notably in developing and transition countries. Our training will be based on the code of ethics and professional standards espoused by Agence France-Presse.
We may also seek to promote freedom of expression and information through other activities, such as: training people working for humanitarian organizations; designing curricula for high schools, schools of journalism and universities; and organizing or participating in conferences and seminars on questions relevant to our field of expertise.
We shall seek funding for some of our activities from national or international development agencies, and we shall seek to form or join partnerships with other foundations which provide media training or otherwise promote press freedom.
In these and all other activities, we will be bound by the following principles.
Our decisions to enter partnerships and to contract for work will be influenced neither by political or commercial pressures, nor by any personal interest
The same is true of the way we design our training courses, select our trainers and carry out our work.
No journalist working for the AFP Foundation, in whatever capacity, may receive any personal benefit from contracts or partnerships involving the AFP Foundation, apart from the payment of his or her services.
Journalists have a duty to inform the public and they must respect ethical principles and high professional standards in their work. This applies both to the way in which reporters, photographers and camera crews go about seeking information and the manner in which they interpret and present it.
These principles and standards not only underlie our philosophy; they will be an integral part of our training courses.
AFP's code of ethics
- AFP expects its journalists to be fair, honest, impartial and accurate. Reporters and editors must not knowingly move any story containing inaccurate, misleading or distorting information.
- An AFP journalist should never use language expressing prejudice based on race, colour, religion, sexual orientation or disability, although a story may sometimes require us to quote such language.
- If a story implies that someone is guilty of wrongdoing, an AFP journalist must do all he or she reasonably can to contact them and give them a chance to answer the criticism or accusations against them.
- An AFP journalist may under no circumstances accept payment or gifts from third parties for moving a story on the AFP wire; nor use confidential information for personal financial profit.
- An AFP journalist may not accept free trips and accommodation from any party without the permission of the regional editor or editor-in-chief. This applies whether they are offered by a political party, a company, a government, NGO, the military or an individual.
- An AFP journalist must never pay for a story or reward a source in cash or in kind.
- AFP journalists should always identify themselves as such, save in exceptional circumstances where it is necessary for a story of significant public interest, and only then with permission from the regional editor or editor-in-chief.
- An AFP journalist should, as far as possible, remove all forms of commercial endorsement from his or her work.
- An AFP journalist must never divulge the identity of a confidential source to anyone outside AFP
- An AFP journalist may not show the draft of a story to a source, save with the permission of the regional editor or editor-in-chief, and only if there is no other way to check its accuracy. Journalists must not promise to allow a source to vet a story as a way of getting information.
- An AFP journalist should approach people in grief with sympathy and discretion and should not intrude on private grief where it is unnecessary.
- An AFP journalist should seek to obtain a parent or guardian's consent before interviewing or photographing children.
- Plagiarism, the deliberate, unattributed copying of another journalist's published work, is strictly forbidden. So is the doctoring of quotes.
Keeping in touch
The AFP Foundation wishes to keep in touch with people who have taken part in our training courses.
What's new ?
Foundation to partner Saudi institute
The AFP Foundation is to train journalists in Saudi Arabia under an agreement between its parent company and the new Prince Ahmed bin Salman Applied Media Institute (PAI) in Riyadh.
next...Training trainers with Jordan Media Institute
For the first time, AFP Foundation and the new Jordan Media Institute (JMI) cooperated in delivering a Training of Journalism Trainers course in April 2008.
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