Media Ethics in the Guidelines of Western Media Organizations and Guidance Documents for Ethical Coverage

What does ethics mean? It is a philosophical science related to morality. Media ethics is a unity of rules and principles, which are formed based on professional values. The principles of media ethics determine what is permissible/acceptable and/or unacceptable in carrying out professional activities. Along with the rights and functions of journalists, the obligations of media representatives are gathered in ethics guidelines, thus creating guidelines for professional standards. The goal of ethical codes is to protect the public interest along with professional independence, therefore, in the civilized world, in all developed countries there are manuals of ethical norms, although the latter can be found under many names: code of ethics and/or charter, standards of conduct, etc. One of the functions of ethics codes is to protect the rights of the audience and improve the quality of public awareness about the rules of professional conduct, which in turn increases the credibility of the media organization. The article presents the ethical codes of the Western media and journalistic associations, which refer to the coverage of religious issues, and discusses how important it is to use them in the implementation of journalistic activities. Keywords: media ethics, ethical codes, ethical journalism.