(2006, revised in 2013)
Preamble
Members of the European Journalism Training Association educate or train their students/participants from the principle that journalists should serve the public by:
- providing an insight into political, economic, socio-cultural conditions,
- stimulating and strengthening democracy at all levels,
- stimulating and strengthening personal and institutional accountability,
- strengthening the possibilities for citizens to make choices in societal and personal contexts,
while:
- feeling responsible for the freedom of expression,
- respecting the integrity of individuals,
- being critical of sources and independent of vested interests,
- using customary ethical standards.
- The competence to reflect on journalism’s role in society
- have a commitment to democratic society
- know the legal and ethical framework of journalism
- to be able to develop a grounded personal view of journalism
- understand the values that underlie professional choices
- to be able to link the local with the national and the global
- The competence to find relevant issues and angles
- know current events and their context
- know the characteristics of different media
- be able to determine the relevance of a subject for different audiences
- be able to stimulate broad participation in debate
- be able to discover newsworthy issues on the basis of in-depth research
- The competence to organise journalistic work
- be able to make a realistic work plan
- be able to work under time pressure
- be able to adjust to unforeseen situations
- be able to organise contributions from the public
- be able to work within budget limits
- The competence to gather information swiftly
- have a wide general knowledge
- have a more specialised knowledge in a field
- be able to find multiple perspectives on an issue
- be able to evaluate sources
- be able to interact with the public
- The competence to select the essential information
- be able to distinguish between main and side issues
- be able to select information on the basis of reliability
- be able to select information on the basis of relevance
- be able to select information in accordance with the media platform
- be able to interpret the selected information
- The competence to present information in an effective journalistic form
- have an outstanding linguistic competence
- have a good visual competence
- be able to use different types of story-telling techniques
- present content in effective combinations of words, sounds and visuals
- be able to make journalistic use of technology
- The competence to account for journalistic work
- have a clear idea of the required quality of journalistic products
- be able to evaluate own work
- be willing to take criticism constructively
- be able to take responsibility for the choices made during the process
- be able to take responsibility for the impact of the product
- The competence to cooperate in a team
- have good social skills
- be reliable
- be able to present ideas convincingly
- be able to find solutions
- show insight into roles and relations within a team
- The competence to act as an entrepreneurial journalist
- show initiative
- understand the economic conditions underlying the profession
- be able to recognize market opportunities
- be able to develop new products/formats
- know the practical aspects of being a freelancer
- The competence to contribute to the renewal of the profession
- be able to reflect on the future of journalism
- be able to define a complex practical/professional problem
- be able to adopt scholarly methods of data collection
- be able to adopt trustworthy methods of analysing and processing data
- be able to provide workable solutions for complex practical issues