Corruptio Optima Pessimi
Ethics Lecture
Serge Dumont
Corruptio Optima Pessimi桾his is Latin for 揅orruption of the best is the worst.?
I抳e chosen this theme for my remarks today for one reason: Because of their influence on society, I believe that journalists and communications professionals must be among the best梩he most honest, the most ethical梡eople in that society?and that corruption of these people is truly the worst possible outcome.
What are ethics ?and why are they important?
Ethics is defined in various ways. In a social context, it can be viewed as respecting the law, honoring contracts, living up to commitments made to clients, consumers, and other members of the public.
One simple definition I like is that ethics is 搕he science of human duty.?That抯 short and to the point: Ethics define one抯 duty梬hether as a journalist, a business leader, or simply as a human being梩o do the right things, and avoid doing the wrong ones.
People sometimes approach ethics as an abstract topic. But it becomes much more meaningful梐nd more interesting梬hen you start looking at concrete examples of ethical, and unethical, behavior.
Here抯 one example to consider:
Over a year ago, a professor of management at Bentley College in Boulder, Colorado taught a class on corporate ethics.
As case studies, he used Enron, Worldcom, and Tyco, all of which have been involved in high-profile scandals in recent years. The course used a role-playing game that involved simulated stock trading, and students were given the opportunity to buy and sell imaginary shares in these companies.
At the end of the term, the professor was dismayed to find that the number of students who engaged in illegal insider trading and other misconduct was roughly three times the number at the start of the course. He interviewed some of the guilty students and asked them how, after spending the whole term learning about illegal corporate activities, they could have engaged in them.
The students replied, 揧ou taught us how to do this. Before taking the course, we didn抰 know such a thing as insider trading was possible, or how to do it. Now we know.?
So what had started as a course in how to behave well.. wound up being a lesson in how to break the law.
This story raises the question: Do ethics classes work? Or will people simply follow the dictates of their character, regardless of what they抮e taught? The classical Greek philosopher Plato said, 揋ood people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.?amp;nbsp;
So: Can you teach ethics at all?
I believe you can. Inevitably, some people will ignore their conscience and do what抯 best for them. But I believe we must teach ethics, or face the possibility that people may start to lose their sense of right and wrong. I personally don抰 want to live in that kind of world. That抯 one reason why this year, candidates for the Tsinghua Serge Dumont Scholarship are being asked to create a program for raising ethical standards among journalists and communications professionals.
Why are ethics important to journalists? The simplest answer is because journalists have power. They梱ou梙ave the power to influence public opinion, the power to help shape political and economic policy卼he power to change society. And anyone with power must learn to use it well, for the good of everyone.
Moreover, we live in a world where business and political leaders are heavily scrutinized by the news media. Journalists serve as ethical guardians. This gives them a huge responsibility for reporting information accurately, and for behaving ethically themselves.
Ethics in the Business World
Ethics pervades almost every aspect of life. So if journalists function as ethical gatekeepers, they have a big job in front of them.
Take business, for example. At the beginning of the new century, the United States was rocked by a series of corporate scandals. The most famous was Enron, a company that falsified its financial records, making certain investments look profitable when they weren抰. Other companies engaged in similar misconduct, to varying degrees. The result has been destruction of shareholder value梞eaning lots of people lost lots of money梐nd a significant erosion of the public抯 trust in corporate governance.
That erosion has been dramatic enough that some companies created a Chief Ethics Officer. Wal-Mart, the world抯 largest retailer, ran advertisements earlier this year seeking a Director of Global Ethics. The job description said the ideal candidate would combine the characteristics of a UN diplomat, an investment wizard, and the super-spy James Bond. I抦 not sure if they ever found a candidate with those qualifications ?lt;/P>
But ?while having a Chief Ethics Officer is nice, it doesn抰 guarantee that a company will act ethically.
Ethics in Academia
Ethics are also important in academia. Professors and Ph.D. candidates face enormous pressure to publish original research while maintaining their teaching duties. This has led some of them to falsify research results and plagiarize the work of others.
In fact, several prominent Chinese researchers have been fired recently after being accused of falsifying their results. These include a former dean of the Micro-electronics School at Shanghai Jiaotong University; and a, former director of the Life Science and Technology Institute. In response to these scandals, the central government will issue national ethics guidelines for researchers, and will form a special commission to ensure academic integrity at Chinese colleges and universities.
Ethics and Journalists
So ?companies and scholars are struggling to raise their ethical standards. As it happens, so are the journalists who cover them.
The first step in raising ethical standards for journalists is to make sure they know the rules of appropriate conduct. This can be accomplished by something as simple as an honor code. In September, the graduate school of journalism at New York University (NYU) began requiring students to sign a pledge clearly defining ethical standards for reporters. Students who don抰 sign the pledge don抰 get their grades. NYU抯 journalism department is also working on a comprehensive code of ethics, which all students will be required to read.
Are such measures helpful? They抮e certainly better than nothing. And at university, they probably are quite effective: After all, students have to sign the pledge or they can抰 pass their courses.
Journalistic Ethics and Public Health
I believe that to a large degree, how China抯 economy and society develop in the coming decades will depend on how successful the country抯 young journalists are in defining ethical reporting criteria卆nd in strengthening the media抯 professional conduct.
Such conduct becomes especially important in reporting on public health issues. We were all reminded of this during the SARS epidemic of 2003. SARS brought home the crucial point that part of the media抯 ethical responsibility during a public health crisis is to keep the public informed. To do that, the media rely on the government to provide accurate information but it must balance the legitimate right the public expects to have to be filly informed, with the equally legitimate concerns that any responsible government will have not to create mass panic?
Journalists communicating about AIDS know the challenges they are up against: they must have the courage to go against prejudice, taboos, and sometimes vested interests, and do what is right. In the fight against AIDS, journalists can, in fact, save more lives than doctors, so the stakes are very high!
UNAIDS has recognized the key roles future communicators and journalists will play in China in the fight against AIDS, and I am pleased to announce that, from now on the two top winners of the yearly Tsinghua-Serge Dumont communications scholarship will be offered an internship at the UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva and in Bangkok. I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS and Joel Rehnstrom UNAIDS China country coordinator for their foresight and support.
And I would also like to congratulate the two winners, Mr. Li Tian and Ms. Qiu Tan for the exceptional quality of their work. They are amazing students working under the leadership of a first class team including Executive Dean, Professor Li Xi Guang, who has himself written books about AIDS.
Ethics and Intellectual Property
One form of ethical behavior that抯 especially relevant in China today is the need to respect intellectual property.
To a large extent, this is a problem of perception: How one perceives IP violations determines what one is willing to do about them. Until recently, many Chinese tended to see IP enforcement as benefiting foreigners, often at Chinese expense. According to this view, protecting IP rights allowed foreign firms to shut down Chinese enterprises, put Chinese people out of work, and generally establish a competitive advantage by charging rent for proprietary brands, products, and services.
Those attitudes are changing now that China is developing more intellectual property of its own. The country抯 businesspeople, journalists, and government leaders have begun developing an appreciation of the importance of intellectual property.
This is evident from some of the remarks made by journalists themselves. Several years ago, the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing held a workshop on IP protection for Chinese newspaper editors. The idea was to help these editors explain to their readers why IP was important.
But the editors were already quite familiar with the need to protect intellectual property, because some had recently had their own IP stolen. One editor angrily told the audience that his magazine had spent thousands of RMB to research a series of articles aimed at increasing readership. Soon after the articles ran, a competing paper used these them without attribution.
Now, it抯 clear why this one editor was angry about having his material stolen. But there抯 a larger point: If a magazine invests money on research to improve its editorial content梠nly to have that research stolen by a competitor梩he magazine probably won抰 ever make such an investment again. Instead, it may be tempted to do what its competitor did: take someone else抯 material and use it as its own.
You can see how that sort of behavior would spark a chain reaction, with publications lifting and re-cycling their competitors?contents, until the overall level of journalism gradually sank to a colorless common denominator. The same thing might well happen in the areas of commerce, art, and culture.
Right now, China抯 IP laws are strong. But their enforcement remains weak. As a result, it抯 still comparatively easy to get away with intellectual property theft.
But that抯 exactly where ethics come into play. Ethics are what keep you from doing the wrong thing, even when you could get away with it. A stronger sense of ethics, supported and advanced by a new breed of Chinese journalists such as the people in this room, will be one of the forces pushing China into the 21st Century.
Conclusion
I hope I抳e convinced you that ethics are important梖or everyone, and especially for journalists and communications professionals. Although there may not be easy answers to the ethical dilemmas you抣l face in your journalistic careers, struggling to do the right thing is well worth the effort.
Let me leave you with this thought: More than anything else, being ethical is about being brave. Confucius said that, 揟o see what is right and not do it, is to lack courage.?
Here抯 another quotation, this one from the 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He said, 揤irtue is a state of war, and to live in it, we have always to combat with ourselves.?
So this is where the real ethical battles are fought: Not in books, or articles, or the law, or even professional codes of conduct卋ut inside our own hearts and minds.
I hope you抣l think about these issues and discuss them with your colleagues. China抯 communications field will be better for it.
Thank you very much.
