November 19, 2007  

The Ethical Blogger has been launched, blogging such current developments and trends as anonymous sources online, citizen journalism in China, media blackouts by martial law, and perceptions of civility on the web.

“Usually when people mention ‘ethics’ and the ‘internet’ in the same breath”, said Global Security Program Director James Der Derian, “I reach for my Glock.”  However, much as the printing press eventually provoked calls for freedom of the press, "each new technology generates new concerns and norms, and blogging has raised them in spades."

The web has presented an enormous leap beyond older forms of media, putting instantaneous, ubiquitous local and global communications in the hands of individuals.

For government, civil society, and other groups, "what should be the social and political norms for best practice on the web? We hope they can be determined – not as laws and codes from the top down but as best practice determined from the bottom up," said Der Derian, who also directs the Institute's Global Media Project.

The Ethical Blogger is a joint initiative of the Global Media Project, the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, Demos – The Think Tank for Everyday Democracy, and Oxford University's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.