The code - rules to swear by for advisers

Does the media have a code of ethics? Photo / Paul Estcourt

A financial adviser surprised me once by asking if journalists had a code of ethics. This was a flagrant attempt on her part to turn the conversation away from talk of the impending code of conduct about to be imposed on the financial advisory industry but, fair enough.

And, dredging my memory, I recalled from my training that there was some kind of code journalists are supposed to swear by although the details escaped me.

There are many different iterations of the journalistic code but this version published Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) will do for reference.

Essentially, the journalist ethos boils down to a couple of points: the famous one of 'don't reveal your sources', and; the lesser well-known principle of 'telling the truth' - the rest is mainly filler.

To be honest, this is the first time I've read the code since university but after years practising in the trade I admit that the code might have some use - I've been tested on a few of the principles over the years. I see them broken elsewhere every day.

Being composed of principles the journalist code is naturally subject to interpretation. Principle (a), for example, which requires journalists to "report and interpret the news with scrupulous honesty by striving to disclose all essential facts and by not suppressing relevant, available facts or distorting by wrong or improper emphasis". All in 300 words.

And, really, what is a "wrong or improper emphasis"? I await further guidance from academia.

I have never been pulled up on a code violation but that may be because it's not really policed. Unlike the recently-released draft code of professional conduct for authorised financial advisers, the principles of journalism remain vaguely aspirational.

Under the AFA draft code of conduct (which, in line with the practice of journalism missed its original deadline by months), financial advisers will have to adhere to 21 underlying principles. The AFA code contains quite of bit of prescriptive detail, too, around education standards and many other rules pertaining to business practices.

There is also this wonderful, almost biblical, instruction that: "AFAs are also required to comply with the spirit of the Code, a well as the strict letter of the Code Standards."

God help the poor AFAs.

While I'm required by the spirit of journalism to dismiss all such government regulatory systems as futile and 'heavy-handed', this might be the wrong emphasis, and possibly untrue.

I refer you to the code for clarification.

David Chaplin