Kod Etika Kewartawanan Malaysia dan Kepentingannya kepada Profesionalisme Wartawan Akhbar Berbahasa Melayu di Malaysia Malaysian Journalism Code of Ethics and its importance to the professionalism journalist of Malay newspaper in Malaysia

Abstract

Malaysian Journalism Code of Ethics was introduced in 1989 by Malaysian Press Institute (now known as MPI) and the Newspaper Editors’ Association (ONE) has paves the way for the rising of professionalism in national journalism. According to Djohn E. Drewry, there is a need to form an ethic to elevate a career into a professional. Furthermore, with the advancement of media technology and communication, it threatens the careers of journalists and requires into the debates or re-evaluation done on this topic, more so now when journalism work are easily regulated by the public. Do journalists use the existing code of ethics and what is its importance to the professionalism of a journalist’s career? This question needs to be answered by journalists as the use of this code of ethics is still less even though the importance is recognized by many scholars. This study utilises the quantitative approach, whereby 272 journalists from five Malay language newspaper were asked to answer a questionnaire. The questionnaires were distributed randomly and analyzed descriptively. This study found that the majority of journalists knew about the Code of Ethics (EKM) and its importance in elevating the professionalism of journalism in Malaysia. Findings from the study also found that journalists possess a high level of ethics according on the practice of the eight EKM.

Kod Etika Kewartawanan Malaysia yang telah diperkenalkan pada 1989 oleh Institut Akhbar Malaysia (kini dikenali sebagai MPI) dan Persatuan Pengarang Akhbar (ONE) telah membuka jalan kepada peningkatan profesionalisme dalam kewartawanan negara. Menurut Djohn E. Drewry, terdapat keperluan untuk membentuk etika demi mengangkat kerjaya ini ke peringkat profesional. Tambahan pula, kemajuan teknologi media dan komunikasi mula mengancam kerjaya wartawan dan memerlukan perbahasan atau penilaian semula dilakukan mengenai topik ini, lebih-lebih lagi ketika ini kewartawanan mudah dikawal oleh orang ramai. Adakah wartawan menggunakan kod etika sedia ada dan apakah kepentingannya kepada profesionalisme kerjaya wartawan? Persoalan ini perlu dijawab oleh wartawan memandangkan penggunaan kod etika ini masih kurang walaupun kepentingannya diakui oleh ramai sarjana. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif, di mana 272 wartawan daripada lima akhbar berbahasa Melayu telah diminta menjawab soal selidik. Soal selidik diedarkan secara rawak dan dianalisis secara deskriptif. Kajian ini mendapati majoriti wartawan mengetahui Kod Etika (EKM) dan kepentingannya dalam memartabatkan profesionalisme kewartawanan di Malaysia. Dapatan kajian juga mendapati wartawan memiliki tahap etika yang tinggi mengikut amalan lapan EKM.