The Level of Compliance of Journalists with the Media Ethics; Readers’ Trust in the Kurdish Newspapers, as an Example

Abstract

The research, as it is implied in the research title, aims at investigating the compliance of journalists with the media ethics and the readers’ trust in the Kurdish newspapers. Determining the level of readers’ trust in the Kurdish newspapers is an incentive for journalists to adhere to truthfulness and the principles of media ethics. Determining the level of compliance of media corporations with the principles of media ethics urges journalists to abide by the media ethics and the treaties of ethics. The purpose of the research is to understand the level of compliance of journalists with the principles of media ethics, the level of compliance of the media corporations with the media ethics, and the effects of the political conflicts on the noncompliance of journalists with the media ethics. The research problem is the mistrust of readers in the Kurdish newspapers in Kurdistan Region. The researcher has utilized the descriptive survey methodology where survey forms are distributed in which two types of information was collected: the general information which includes gender, age, location, occupation, education; and the private information which the researcher has mentioned above. There were 450 forms distributed among an intended audience which included journalists, public workers, self-employed, university professors, and students in all the three provinces of Erbil, Suleimani, and Duhok. The research outcome demonstrates that the readers’ trust in the Kurdish newspapers has declined due to noncompliance with the media ethics which include impartiality, truthfulness, objectivity, and discretion and that is due to journalists ignoring the principles of media ethics.