University News Last updated 18 April 2012
A leading media academic from Birmingham City University is helping journalism students in a former Eastern Bloc county to better understand the ethics that safeguard the integrity of their chosen career - and the freedom of speech.
Diane Kemp, director of postgraduate broadcast journalism courses at the Birmingham School of Media, part of Birmingham City University, has been in Lithuania to deliver a short teaching programme, entitled Journalism Ethics.
Diane was there as part of an ongoing initiative organised in the Baltic republic by the global anti-corruption organisation Transparency International.
“The project invites prominent international experts and opinion leaders to Lithuania to guide discussions and hold training with Lithuanian journalists to encourage them to think ‘outside the box’,” explained Diane.
Diane spent two days with postgraduate journalism students from Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, and Kaunas, the country’s second city. The event was hosted by Vytautus Magnus University in Kaunas.
She helped the students to tackle the ethical issues which confront working journalists on a daily basis. The session was called ‘Towards a workable code of ethics’.
“I’m keen that they think of ethics as part of their daily working life, as opposed to a set of rules they studied once at university but then put to the back of their minds,” added Diane.
Diane runs the postgraduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism which is professionally accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council. The course is celebrating its 20th year and the Birmingham School of Media will be hosting a reunion for its alumni in the summer.