Ethics

I am surprised, even shocked, to see that editorial staff are to be forced to undergo ethics training [Mandatory ethics training ordered for Reuters staff]. In my experience our journalists were particularly careful to heed our code of conduct. I suggest the need for training should include the company’s directors and trustees, who have failed us more than any journalist.

To start with, Sir Dick Olver who, as chairman of an arms manufacturer, should never have been invited onto the board, and who should have been firmly booted later.

The Reuter board should never have allowed the Thomsons to exceed the 15 per cent shareholding limited stipulated in the articles, but of course they had something to gain. Tom Glocer should never have negotiated himself the bonus for seeing the merger through. The trustees betrayed us by letting the merger go ahead in spite of the Founders Share Company rules. Give me a journalist any day for honesty!

While on this subject, I would like to commend to every reporter and editor, no matter how experienced, Stewart Purvis’ excellent book “When Reporters Cross the Line: The Heroes, the Villains, the Hackers and the Spies”. It should be essential reading for every journalist. ■