I. Introduction This master’s thesis represents study of female newspaper and magazine editors in Azerbaijan based on Western and Soviet definitions of journalism with explanation of local national features of this p

III.2.2 Editors and ethical codes

In chapter I. we reviewed results of our previous inquiry on ethical codes in Azerbaijan as well as discussed relevant processes that took place after our 2008 research was completed. Standardized codes of action and their perception by the selected female editors constitute one of our research questions as well as the focal point of this subchapter where respondents answer if they consider written ethical codes important⁴⁰ and if they are familiar with such codes in local or foreign media. Given the fact that none of the participating editors accustomed a written code in their newspaper/magazine their responses only strengthened our conclusion that female editors do not consider the codified ethical norms as a must-have tool that helps to solve ethical dilemmas.

M.H. editor-in-chief of pro-government newspaper puts special emphasis on self-regulatory documents that in her opinion grant credibility to journalists as professionals.

I think we already have a code of ethics, don’t we? In my opinion, it should be like the Hippocrates oath that medics give when they enter the profession. The same should apply to journalists as well. They should swear that they will not write lies, will not for the sake of sensation corrupt citations, will not use newspaper against people that oppose them.

Editor S.A from a semi-independent newspaper offered an answer that best sums up short answers of other four female editors that consider that there is a pressing need to have a written code of ethics in Azerbaijan.

Naturally, it is very important. We already have an ethical code adopted by Press council. There are lots of journalists that just arrived in the profession and have no idea what are ethical norms and how one should apply them in his work. All problems between journalists and other side arise from this illiteracy.

Old Soviet-school deputy managing editor F.X. working in government-funded newspaper represents in our research a category of her own since in her response she addresses ethical codes via prism of her journalistic practice and customizes it according to behavioral codes stipulated by Azerbaijani mentality and behavioral stereotypes through which she was brought up in her family.

European codes of conduct originate from their heritage roots, from their national customs and traditions. We need to protect our own. The rule of thumb is, don’t write something to people that you will not allow yourself to say to your brother, sister or other family member. That’s the rule when you sit down to write something. Would you want your child to read those smearing writings of yours? Would you spill your obscene thoughts on them? You will never do that!

Even though such vague terms of professional conduct may in their essence be true, yet they are not necessarily binding or evoking respect by the rest of the journalistic community of Azerbaijan. For instance I.T. editor of independent newspaper thinks that for Azerbaijan it is too early to talk about obedience to written codes of ethics:

You know it depends rather on one’s parental education rather than adherence to a written word. Written rules will not change behavior of a man with no moral boundaries. In general, I am in favor of cleansing boors from this profession.

While editors like T.B. and U.X. see written ethical codes as a conditional tools of professional discipline inside of their editorial office. While U.X. argues that only some points deserve to be stipulated in a form of a written ethical code and be applied, T.B. states that written codes in general have be apply only to certain staff members:

It is not possible to give a unanimous answer to this. There are staff members ranging from a correspondent to an editor-in-chief or newspaper or its founder that actively works on it, - they know their work well and do not need to be taught how to do their jobs. They know work ethics like coming to work in time, they know ethics of how to communicate with people and on the workplace with their colleagues, staff or guests invited to visit newspaper. But there are also people that need to be constantly reminded by a code in front of their eyes. Those can be good journalists that profess in written language and work well but due to their nature’s absent-mindedness they have to be constantly reminded of rules.

Some of their colleagues [3 editors] form a group that has no faith in written codes and deems them to be an unnecessary. While pro-oppositional editor N.Y. considers that codes will be necessary only after all other norms and laws will be followed by the authorities in the first place, R.X. and A.S. have no faith in authority of ethical codes. A.S. relinquishes a thought that ethical codes on their own can improve the upholding of ethical standards and says the following:

I don’t think that there is a necessity to put everything on paper since if you know norms you follow them. I think codes are unnecessary but it seems that sooner or later they will be accepted as a law in Azerbaijan. There more than enough guidelines for ethics in our existing laws. It is responsibility of a journalist to know what ethical requirements are, what is allowed to write and what is not. One should study them before he embarks to be a journalist.

In comparison with the 2008 research, there was only one editor who refused to talk about ethical codes and it was a magazine editor N.M. that stated about written ethical codes

“it is a complicated issue and I don’t want to tell you just general words”.

Reviewing all the answers provided in this subchapter we come to a conclusion that female editors are lagging behind their male counterparts in following latest developments of media self regulations norms in Azerbaijan and more rely on their experience and intuition. In terms of applying ethical guidelines in their offices, female gate-keepers lack common grounds except vaguely defined Azerbaijani mentality that causes them to be scattered in their practice on a curve from an idealist moral woman that acts in the best traditions of Azerbaijani mentality towards realist female editors critical of current situation in Azerbaijan and preferring true facts over greater future good of the society. Yet, our inquiry provided us with no hard evidence that selected females take active participation in politically instrumentilized journalism, a corruption that we found to be a common plague among their male counterparts⁴¹.

Collected data allows us to state that only few of the selected editors posses normative knowledge of ethical codes, including Ethical code of Azerbaijani Journalists adopted by the Press Council not to mention codes of foreign media. Our 2012 research took, with some modifications, the same direction of inquiry as in 2008 and that is why we are still not able to answer the question of how religion factor affects editors in the key of “American journalist” research by Weaver and Wilhoit. A substantial breakthrough, however, is that in comparison with 2008 research, we can theorize that female editors are affected by their family education and journalistic practice. In this regard, it is possible to draw lines between research of Souhradova Czech editors (Souhradova 2002) where on the basis of Fred Enderse’s interpretation she stated that editors are influenced by family education and journalistic practice.
Yet, since we did not intentionally conceptualize and prepare research to receive the above mentioned data we can only accept that statement with a note that our research skimmed only the surface of the issue and opening the door for farther inquiries. On the other hand interviews that we have conducted definitely allow us to say that Azerbaijani female journalists are influenced by national mentality that absorbs traditions and stereotypes of feminine behavior in Islamic culture and rely on years of journalistic practice and clichés that are connected to it. Codified ethical norms are accepted but just as in case of male editors, remain handy accessory since new journalists are encouraged to learn ethical standards by learning practices of their more experienced colleagues. The long standing bipolar confrontation of government-opposition camps produced, as in many southern states high levels of political instrumentalization that in consequence lowered levels of adherence to professional standards. At the same time low salaries and non existence of work contracts among Azeri journalists cause them to succumb to proletarization and deprofessionalization with the extortionist journalism being their logical final destination. Thus, once again we draw a parallel between process of proletarization in the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan and state that while journalistic spectrum of Azerbaijan answers classic definition of political instrumentalization of media formulated by Hallin and Mancini (2004) journalists in the Czech Republic suffer from all-present economic pressures rather than political ones (Volek 2007). The female editors in the course of our inquiry once again reassured our 2008 evaluation of similarities that our two countries display despite their different transformation phases and opposite political systems. Azerbaijani and Czech journalism go through the same process of deprofessionalization where there is a large quantity of young professionally untutored journalists that are prone to manipulations and face permanent financial crises while the old educated generation slowly dies out relinquishing their positions (Volek 2008).