India’s biggest business paper, The Economic Times, has gifted its print and television staffers a golden jubilee gift: a short and succinct 447-word code of ethics.
It clearly defines, among other things, the “Chinese Wall” between “church and state”:
“Our reporting and analysis is entirely independent of our advertising and investment departments (Response / Sales and Private Treaties). We do not give preferential treatment to advertisers / treaty partners nor do we entertain requests from the business departments of BCCL to do so.”
The full text of the ET code of ethics has been made available online and today’s front-page carries “The Golden Pledge” as a graphic element.
The ET and ET Now code reminds its journalists that to provide the best reportage and analysis to its readers and viewers, they must strive to be “accurate and unbiased” and their stories must be “attributed, verified and honest.”
One of ET‘s main competitors, Mint from the Hindustan Times stable, has occupied the high moral ground in the absence of an ET code, with an 8,676-word Lakshman rekha.
Image: courtesy The Economic Times
IJR 
Classic Vineet Jain: when the noise about your being a self-confessed crook becomes too much, become the Good Guy again! After all, everything in this world is about branding, image-making, PR.
Does this apply to the Times of India too, or will that kill the golden goose?
Mint born with ethics code. ET gets it at 50 lol – growing wiser with age one shd say. The code makes gud bedtime reading – more so if u read it with radia tapes in the background – the section where they talk about fixing ET
It is never too late, really! And what’s past is past, why rake it up? All those directives by immature editors -pshaw! Forget them and move on…
I agree this is such cynical re-branding. Actually, its myth-making – remember the old TOI slogan – ‘the leader guards the reader’?
900 choohe khaake billi chali haj ko!!!
FYI: The ET code of ethics has been circulated to journalists for over a decade — I have a photocopy of the document (which used to be called The EThical Way) which was given to me back in 1999 when I joined the paper. An updated version extending to ET NOW was put online when the channel launched in 2009, but I can assure you that it existed and was known to exist, well before its online debut.