The Evolution of the Civil Constitution
If journalism is the lifeblood of Civil, then the Civil Constitution is its beating heart. Broadly, it strives to capture the values of ethical journalism as practiced around the world. More specifically, it aims to memorialize the standards that the Civil community of newsrooms will embrace in their service to the public. We’re pleased today to share our most recent draft of the Civil Constitution. This is the version we ask newsrooms to sign on to for launch
This document has been a journey. The first draft was published in May 2018 and sparked robust comment and debate from Civil’s early community of journalists and supporters from the broader public. Based partly on that feedback — and with input from the newly formed Civil Foundation and the inaugural members of the Civil Council — we produced a second draft, which was published in August 2018.
We then took that version of the Constitution on the road. We held meetings with journalists in New York, London, Toronto, Washington DC and Hong Kong — more than100 experienced editors, reporters and academics in all. We engaged with standards and ethics experts in nine countries. We sought input from members of the Civil Council and from journalists working at existing Civil newsrooms. And we sought and received input from the public via our Telegram channel, by email, over Twitter and in person. We debated again and again — and again — about how the Constitution should be structured.
Here are some of the issues we wrestled with:
- Should the Constitution be a “ceiling?” Or a “floor?” By which we mean: is it the minimal standard for newsrooms operating on Civil? Or should the Constitution be an aspirational document towards which newsrooms can aspire, even if they don’t currently meet all the criteria? In the end, we opted for a floor, meaning we wanted to create a big tent, not a bubble of only newsrooms that meet the strictest interpretation of journalistic ethics.
- How prescriptive should the Constitution be? Is it a set of rules that must be adhered to the letter, or a general guidelines that will be interpreted over time by the community? We embraced the latter, because like other governing documents, including the US Constitution, we feel it belongs to the community and should evolve over time.
- How do we balance American or Western European standards, which largely protect press freedoms, with newsrooms operating in areas where there are limitations on what they can report without risk? In this draft, we attempted to capture a more global set of standards as we believe that newsrooms doing what they can — even where press protection is limited — should be supported.
The public and the newsrooms that become part of Civil will judge whether we got these right. I have no doubt that when the Civil network launches early in the new year, there will be things that need to be revised. There’s nothing like real life to put even the most thorough academic exercises to shame. But that’s what is so powerful about this document — that it is a living, evolving reflection of the shared values of the community, and as such needs to be able to change over time. We look forward to your continued feedback (click here for the comment-able version!), and to having you as part of the Civil community as we embark on this groundbreaking journey.
If you’re a newsroom interested in joining the Civil community, please click here.
