That is ethics on a level far above such scandals as the inventions and plagiarism of Jack Kelley, formerly of USA Today. Obviously, being ethical for a journalist means more than just observing the prohibitions in the codes. It means serving the public well. But just their own public? That is not enough.

I was in Conakry (Guinea) earlier this month. Black Africa is a part of the world where a free press started flowering over the last 20 years ? and along with it, codes of ethics and press councils, called "observatories." Such developments were crucial to democratic progress, which is itself crucial to economic progress.

?Should not news media from wealthy countries encourage the trend? They might start by reporting more from that region. How many people in the developed world realise that Africa is dying? Only readers of books such as Stephen Smith's N?grologie (Calmann-L?vy 2003). Do newspaper readers in the West know that in most of Africa, the economy is doing worse than 40 years ago. That social problems (food, health, education, transportation, etc.) are far worse today?

The printed press and a slight increase in democracy are two bright spots in the midst of this misery. However, independent media outlets rarely possess the means to cover this news well. There are European and U.S. institutions and NGOs that assist them, but in a way this help is too ephemeral, scattered, specific.

?I have a suggestion. What if well-to-do dailies in Europe, the U.S. and Japan, on an individual basis, each sponsored a newspaper in Africa, helping to develop it into a professional publication? It would be like a master craftsman training an apprentice. Thus, they would extend their social responsibility beyond their own market, to the only continent where today there coexists extreme poverty, famine, huge epidemics and true genocides.

How you do it? I suggest you pick a city in black Africa where newspapers are published in a language known by some of your staff (ex; English, French or Portuguese). Visit, have a look around with the help of your embassy, then contact a daily or weekly paper to examine its capacities and needs. Do not send money that may get waylaid. Do not buy shares, which may be interpreted as neo-colonialism. Do not invite African journalists as interns: solutions must be devised within the African environment.

You should brace for a long-term association ? but it need not cost a fortune. The assistance will consist of regularly sending an experienced reporter, ?manager or technician to organise training sessions; of helping out by sending second-hand equipment and editorial services, maybe even some newsprint; of providing legal and political protection against local bureaucrats and autocrats; of somehow supplementing the extremely low salaries that make journalists vulnerable to corruption. The possibilities are endless.

Media ethics means not just avoiding misspelt names, shock photos, dirty words and invented stories. It also means proving planet-wide solidarity with the less fortunate.

Source: Claude-Jean Bertrand, Editor of presscouncils.org