Fomer BBC executive Atholl Duncan claims journalism could learn plenty from accountants
With the reputation of journalism as a profession in tatters in the wake of phone tapping and other scandals, is it not about time that journalism organised itself more along the lines of the best of other professions? So asks former senior BBC executive Atholl Duncan.
Have journalists and monks got anything in common? John Prescott might say “No”, after the Sunday Times wrongly quoted him criticising Ed Milliband and was forced to apologise. However, Prezza might wish to consider that there may be more in common between hacks and monks than you might think.
Both are professions. Both are professions which have been around for centuries. Both are professions which have played an immeasurably, important role in shaping society. Monks were the first professionals. The first people to profess rites, to take vows. Medicine and law folllowed. Now the professions stretch far and wide from teachers to pilots to social workers to dentists.
My current job is focussed on building a unique professional community in the world of accountancy for ICAS – the professional body of CAs. In this world, Chartered Accountants are taught their first allegiance lies with the profession and not with their employer or client. The ethics which they must adhere to are defined by the profession. If an employer or client asks them to do something unprofessional, their reference point is the ethics of their professional body.
Back to journalism – a profession with a reputation in tatters in the wake of phone tapping and other scandals. Is it not about time that journalism organised itself more along the lines of the best of the other professions?
I know well at least two of the honourable members of the Press Complaints Commission. Despite their undoubted honest efforts this remains the chocolate tea pot of regulators. For journalism to be taken more seriously as a profession, regulation must be overhauled. Training and education must be modernised. The ethics and standards of the profession must be clearly, openly and better stated. All journalists must then feel their behaviour and standards are bonded to the ethics of the profession and not to the whims and vagaries of the news editor of the day. The change averse must stop confusing the pursuit of higher professional and ethical standards with a dilution of freedom of the press.
In medicine, religion and the law those who practice take an oath to cement their adherence to their ethics and purpose. Can you imagine journalists in the future doing such a thing. Could journalists adapt this pledge of Hippocrates “If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.” Well, why not?