Does the SPJ Ethics Code need a revision?

The SPJ Ethics Committee is asking that question and seeking input from members.

In the latest Quill (July/August 2013), Kevin Smith, SPJ past president and Ethics Committee chair, notes that it’s been 17 years since the last revision of the Code.

The question that no one in SPJ can dodge, he says, is “whether the Code has worn-out verbiage and might need an editing facelift to address current times.”

The Ethics Committee wants to hear what you think – whether everything is fine, whether a little tweaking is needed, whether a full overhaul is needed.

Read the Code. It’s available on the SPJ website.

Then offer your thoughts on a special feedback portal set up by the committee.

And if you’re attending the Excellence in Journalism confab in California this weekend, come to a special Town Hall meeting in which Smith and the committee will hear input on the Code. It’s on Sunday afternoon from 2:30 to 3:30.

The committee will be working on the Code in the coming year with an eye to bring any changes before SPJ at EIJ14 in Nashville, Tenn., next September.