Journalism Research and Random Meanderings

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Code of Ethics for Politicians? 

Do politicians have a code of ethics? Journalist do and so do a lot of other disciplines.

The question occurred to me while I was reading the paper today and I thought how strange it was that the terms 'code of ethics' and 'politicians' just didn't link up in my head. I figured Google would tell me (good old google) but nothing jumps out at me even after tweaking the search a few times. I searched the Canadian Parliament web site and didn't find anything there either.

I punched in ethics.org on a whim and there doesn't seem to be anything there either. I e-mailed them and will post their response or lack of same.

Isn't it sort of a strange ommission? Journalists have a code of ethics but politicians don't?

Conflict of Interest and Post-employment Code for Public Office Holders (2003) from the Federal Government Office of the Ethics Counsellor


These are from Hal Doran:

Industry Canada Office of the Ethics Counsellor


The MP Rulebook - An outline of the guidelines governing MP behaviour