The Muslim World League (MWL) issued on Thursday a “code of honor” for media
institutions and journalists in the Muslim world, calling on them to spread
Islamic messages while countering biased reports against Muslims and Islam.
The code of
honor was presented during the closing ceremony of the Second International
Conference on Islamic Media in Jakarta, which raised
the theme “New Media and Communication Technology in the Muslim World: Opportunity and Challenge”.
“The
conference recommends the issuance of a code of honor for communication and
information media according to the attached draft and circulation of it among
ministries of information and media institutions in the Muslim world,”
conference participant Mohammed Musa said as he read out recommendations from
the three-day
conference.
“[The conference also] stresses the need to adhere to [the code of honor] when
issuing national media codes, as well as codes for media institutions,” said
the communications professor from New Zealand’s
University of Canterbury.
The code of
honor is divided into four sections: (1) general principles and objectives, (2)
rights, (3) responsibilities and (4) duties of Muslim media persons.
In the general
principles and objectives section, the code calls on Muslim media figures “to
affirm a belief in the moral principles and values of Islam, to safeguard the
Islamic identity from the negative effects of globalization and westernization
and to ensure freedom that is responsible and disciplined by sharia
guidelines”, among
others.
In the rights
section, the code guarantees the right of expression (but still within the
limits of sharia law), the right to access information and the right for a good
working environment to support journalists’ work performance.
The third
section calls on media figures in the Muslim world to, among others, “take care
of Islam’s heritage, history and civilization, and also of the Arabic language
as the language of the Koran and prayers, and confront atheism and all other
anti-Islam tendencies that spread hatred against Islam and Muslims”.
The fourth
section details calls for “support for Muslim peoples in their efforts to
resist oppression and occupations” and to adhere to general principles in a journalistic
universal code of ethics, such as “refraining from publishing and broadcasting
all forms of incitement to violence, keeping away from the fabrication of
events and verifying the news and being honest in its reporting”. Most points
are still added to with the note “within sharia guidelines” or according to
“Islamic morals”.
Organized jointly by the MWL and the Indonesian Religious Affairs Ministry, the
Jakarta
conference drew hundreds of participants, including academics and media
practitioners from dozens of Muslim countries, as well as representatives from
Islamic organizations in non-Muslim majority nations.
