ABSTRACT

This article examines byline issues and journalism ethics in an Asian context, with particular focus on how journalists invent and subsequently publish articles under various non-existent authors. The study took place between April and August 2022 in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where ethical misbehavior in journalism is normalized and academic institutions in the region fail to develop students’ ethical approach to journalism. It is well known that journalists write about politically sensitive issues under pseudonyms or other names in authoritarian contexts, but this study adds to scholarship exploring why and under what circumstances journalists in an Asian context use non-existent authors even when writing on nonsensitive and trivial matters. The findings suggest that journalists choose to and/or are forced to publish articles using multiple pseudonyms by political, economic, and individual circumstances. The findings are discussed in relation to the theory of deontological ethics.

摘要

本文探讨亚洲背景下的署名问题和新闻伦理，特别关注记者如何在各种不存在的作者名下发明并随后发表文章。该研究于 2022 年 4 月至 2022 年 8 月在哈萨克斯坦、吉尔吉斯斯坦和乌兹别克斯坦进行，在这些国家，新闻业的不当道德行为已成为常态，该地区的学术机构未能培养学生对新闻业的道德态度。众所周知，记者在专制环境下使用假名或其他名字报道政治敏感问题，但这项研究增加了学术研究，探索亚洲背景下的记者为什么以及在什么情况下使用不存在的作者，即使在写非敏感和琐碎的事情时也是如此. 调查结果表明，由于政治、经济和个人情况，记者选择和/或被迫使用多个假名发表文章。调查结果与道义伦理学理论相关进行了讨论。