The quest for media ethics: an introduction

Abstract

This Ecquid Novi is the first issue in the ‘new South Africa’. Therefore, it was thought worthwhile to focus on media ethics. The previous special edition of Ecquid Novi (1989) dealt with press freedom in South Africa - or rather the lack thereof. Five years later the country has its first fully democratically elected government; media restrictions imposed under the Emergency Regulations of the mid-1980s have been removed, and media deregulation has become a reality. The question of media ethics, however, has stayed on the back burner. This article explores some of the basic tenets and questions in media ethics that might become part of a public agenda on the topic of responsible media policies and decision making.