THE introduction of compulsory ethics training for student journalists is the most important change made by the journalism qualifications body, the National Council for the Training of Journalists, the editor of The Sunday Post, Donald Martin, is reported to have told delegates at a NCTJ journalism skills conference in Bournemouth earlier today.
Martin is a board member of the NCTJ was joined on a discussion panel – reports the NCTJ itself – by, among others, Sandra Laville, crime correspondent at The Guardian, and Andrew Wilson, head of the journalism foundation at the BBC, to discuss “the issues around training responsible professionals with an emphasis on the post-Leveson environment”.
The panel was chaired by Karen Fowler-Watt of Bournemouth University.
Said a NCTJ media release: “Donald said the NCTJ had a responsibility to prove that they believed in the importance of ethics. They needed to provide students with a basis to recognise ethical issues and understand how their stories can impact peoples’ lives. Those trainees should then seek employers that offered continuing training and development as their careers progressed.
“He was confident that the industry would have better journalists, post-Leveson.”
