A Statement of Concern

The Statement of Concern was drafted in the summer of 1997 by two- dozen leading journalists. It has been signed by scores of others who in doing so joined the Committee of Concerned Journalists. The Committee is open to all journalists. The statement is the basis on which the series of nationwide public forums have been built. The statement of concern reads as follows:

This is a critical moment for journalism in America. While the craft in many respects has never been better-consider the supply of information or the skill of reporters-there is a paradox to our communications age. Revolutionary changes in technology, in our economic structure and in our relationship with the public, are pulling journalism from its traditional moorings. As audiences fragment and our companies diversify, there is a growing debate within news organizations about our responsibilities as businesses and our responsibilities as journalists. Many journalists feel a sense of lost purpose. There is even doubt about the meaning of news, doubt evident when serious journalistic organizations drift toward opinion, infotainment and sensation out of balance with the news.

Journalists share responsibility for the uncertainty. Our values and professional standards are often vaguely expressed and inconsistently honored. We have been slow to change habits in the presentation of news that may have lost their relevance. Change is necessary.

Yet as we change we assert some core principles of journalism are enduring. They are those that make journalism a public service central to self-government. They define our profession not as the act of communicating but as a set of responsibilities. Journalism can entertain, amuse and lift our spirits, but news organizations also must cover the matters vital to the well being of our increasingly diverse communities and foster the debate upon which democracy depends. The First Amendment implies obligation as well as freedom.

For much of our history, we believed we could let our work enunciate these principles and our owners and managers articulate these responsibilities. Today, too often, the principles in our work are hard to discern or lost in the din, and our leaders feel constrained.

Now we believe journalists must speak for themselves. We call on our colleagues to join as a community of professionals to clarify the purpose and principles that distinguish our profession from other forms of communication.

Since the change we face is fundamental, it requires a response of the same magnitude. We need a focused examination of the demands on journalism in the 21st Century.

We propose to summon journalists to a period of national reflection. First, we ask our colleagues young and old to sign this declaration of concern. We believe the consortium of journalists who share a commitment to common principles is so broad and so significant that it will constitute a powerful movement toward renewal.

Next we will convene a set of public forums around the country over the next several months to hear the concerns of journalists as well as other interested individuals. The forums should reiterate two simple messages: that journalists of all generations are concerned about the direction of the profession; and that they want to clarify their purpose and principles. We do not presume to enumerate those principles here, but to have them be articulated through the forums. These sessions will include the public. We will publish an interim report after each one. At their conclusion, the group will release a final report that will attempt to define the enduring purpose of journalism, along with its principles, responsibilities and aspirations.

We see this as a beginning, a catalyst forging new ideas and a renewed spirit of conviction. We plan to carry the dialogue forward with a web site, videotapes of the forums and through other means. We do not intend to propose a set of solutions: this is an attempt to clarify our common ground. Nor is our motive to develop a detailed code of conduct: if journalism is a set of aims, how we fulfill them should change with changing times and be left to each news organization to decide. But if journalism is to survive, it falls to individual journalists, especially in each new generation, to articulate what it stands for.

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Also See:

A Statement of Shared Purpose [1]

A Citizens' Bill of Rights [2]