Journalistic Ethics Charter calls on media to stop the spread of personal life footage

The Georgian Council for Journalistic Ethics Charter calls on news media, to immediately cease the coverage of the video material with secretly filmed personal lives of sexual minorities. The Chief Prosecutor’s Office handed these shots to media on January 14.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the investigation is in process, according to which the Georgian Defense Ministry Police Department high officials through blackmailing had been collecting the information on homosexual men. The proof of this is right this video material.

The Journalistic Ethics Charter reminds the Article 7 to media representatives, according to which the journalists should be aware of the danger of discrimination promotion, we must do everything to avoid discrimination against any person based on race, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other belief, on the basis of national or social origin, or any other grounds.

Article 10 of the Ethics Charter stipulates that journalists should respect people's private lives and not to interfere in personal life of any individual, unless there is no special public interest.

The Council for Journalistic Ethics Charter believes that the individuals can be identified from the video recording. That is why it calls on media for the termination of footage coverage.

In addition, the Council for Journalistic Ethics Charter appeals to the Chief Prosecutor's Office to pay more attention to the issue of making secretly filmed material public, especially if the video contains the information on people's personal lives.

Media.ge