NUJ's witness code slated by industry pundits

The National Union of Journalists' code of practice for citizen journalists is being dutifully and systematically dissected by high profile web journalists, variously labelling it 'braindead', 'impractical' and a 'bloody awful mess'.

A barrage of criticism came from Emily Bell, Simon Waldman and Jeff Jarvis at Guardian Unlimited and assistant editor Neil McIntosh gave the code a particularly brutal fisking on his blog, here and here.

Most of the code's critics feel it is designed primarily to protect the interests of traditional media - something that those involved in the exploratory world of web publishing naturally resist.

The union has also been criticised for focusing on 'witness contributions' (such as mobile phone footage from the London bombings) which are only one form of citizen journalism. It has also come under fire for trying to rigidly demarcate the use of material that has barely even been defined.

Rather than presenting the document as a done deal, the union may have done better to put its guidelines out to the world in beta, asking those professionally involved with citizen journalism to pitch in. After all, our readers know more than we do and journalism is a conversation, not a lecture...

No go in its current form

As it is, some web editors have said they cannot adopt the code in its current form.

Pete Clifton, head of BBC News Interactive, said that, while there are some aspects of the code the BBC would wholeheartedly endorse, the suggestion that contributions should be paid for is more problematic.

"This is part of the discussion we should have but I don't believe it is the role of the BBC to pay for everything on the site," he said.

"We couldn't afford to do it and anyway people don't want payment. It's not our role to commercialise this."

He pointed out the NUJ has a strong membership in the BBC newsroom and that user-generated content (UGC) has not put any journalists out of work. The BBC still 'pays a huge amount' to agencies and freelance journalists, and inside the BBC UGC has actually created jobs in the form of a newsroom hub that verifies, checks and even solicits reader content for use throughout the corporation. This hub will soon expand to a team of six.

Already covered by common sense

Telegraph web editor Richard Burton said most of the areas covered by the code would be be answered by common sense or by existing editorial processes.

He said that the code indicates an attempt to protect 'real' journalism in response to the current trend for citizen journalism.

"Readers have always been a massive source of information and sometimes contributions, so this code is just revisiting well-trodden ground," he said.

"At least it's being thought about, but it needs to be thought through a lot more. This is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction."

Sticking up for professional journalism

The union is constrained by its remit; to protect the interests of its not insignificant 35,000-strong membership, rather than to attempt to regulate the entire amorphous phenomenon of citizen media.

In that respect the code may work well, but the problems occur where these objectives appear to unrealistically dictate how citizen media should be used.

Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said that he thinks there has been some misconception about what the code is designed to do. He insists that the code should not be seen as negative.

"It is not supposed to undermine citizen journalism but to raise the quality and standards of this part of the media," he told journalism.co.uk.

He said there had been substantial discussion about the code and that the union had to reflect the opinions of its members.

"The drive behind using the term witness contributors was to draw a distinction between those that are employed as professional journalists and those who are not," he said.

"That's not to say that those who aren't professional don't have a valuable contribution to make, but many of them don't consider what they do to be journalism."

Perhaps (more worryingly for the union) the label 'journalist' is not one members of the public want to share.

And the NUJ's deputy general secretary John Fray denied that the union is uncomfortable with the whole citizen journalism debate.

"The Guardian chose to say that we were dinosaurs - I don't know why," he said.

"We represent professional journalism and believe in quality and standards. The code is intended to protect the position of professional journalists and those that are providing content to news organisations.

"These matters have to be dealt with properly and the code is designed to help do that. It's a learning curve, but the code is a useful start."

Jeremy Dear said the code is a 'living document' that will change and develop, as did the union's 100-year-old code of practice for members. The code will be discussed by members at the union's annual conference in March.

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