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Center for International Media Ethics
The Center for International Media Ethics is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, Illinois, that brings together a network of journalists throughout the world to foster the highest standards for ethics in the media.

History
In July 2007, thirty-two young journalists and professionals from five continents gathered in Prague for a week-long European Journalism Institute hosted by The Fund for American Studies (TFAS). By the end of the week the group shared a vision and the desire to take it a step further.

CIME emerged as a formal international framework to implement practical solutions to the ethical challenges faced by journalists worldwide. The organization brings together media professionals with the common goal of capitalizing on what each individual journalist can do to enhance freedom of the press.

Founders
President: Kayeromi Gomez graduated from the Ghana Institute of Journalism. He then studied at Roosevelt University, and was selected for membership in Lambda Pi Eta, a NCA Honors Society in recognition of high scholarship and commitment to professional and public service. He was also inducted in the Franklin Honor Society for outstanding scholarship. Kayeromi has worked in project management and public relations in Ghana, for television in Benin, and is currently the North American news correspondent for Citi FM in Ghana.

Director: Melisande Middleton is an honors graduate of Stanford University and Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, with a focus in international affairs and economics. She has written and edited for the World Bank, UNESCO, CNRS International Magazine, Les Echos and Bayard Presse media group. Her projects have involved work in Japan, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, and West Africa. She was a visiting scholar at Oxford University's Center for Socio-Legal Studies (CSLS) and Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP) in 2009.

Description
CIME focuses on what each individual journalist can do to help build democracy. The organization promotes ethical practices from the journalist's perspective - as a counterpart to efforts by governments, legal institutions, or media organizations.

CIME supports journalists in maintaining high ethical standards that contribute to the media's consolidation as a fourth power in their country's governance, and encourages each journalist to take on a proactive role in defining ethical practices through the decisions made at work on a daily basis. The driving emphasis at CIME is that journalists together have the power to formulate and enforce a tacit code of ethics as a status quo of their profession.

On a broad level, CIME aims to:


 * Open doors for ethical issues to be freely discussed among media professionals and beyond
 * Propose formulas for abiding by higher ethical standards
 * Broaden awareness that fair reporting is crucial to consolidating pluralism in the media
 * Support media professionals in knowing that they are not alone in their daily struggle to keep ethical standards high at all times
 * Encourage individual journalists to take on increasing levels of responsibility for integrity in news reporting
 * Emphasize the power of the media and the implications of a reporter's choice of which topics to cover

Specifically, CIME provides media professionals with:
 * Training/awareness-building
 * Expertise and consulting in media ethics
 * Cutting-edge reference for ethical standards
 * An international network of journalists committed to ethics

CIME Forum 2009
CIME brought journalists together in Cotonou, Benin in February 2009 for discussion and training on media ethics in West Africa.

The basic structure of the CIME Forum was a combination of panels and workshops. The workshop component consisted of the CIME ethics training course. The course puts forth a set of guidelines to get journalists thinking about and mastering strategies to best deal with ethical dilemmas in their work.

Panelists Included:


 * Esther Tola, BBC Correspondent (Benin)
 * Hermès Gbaguidi,LC2 television (Benin)
 * Christophe Assogba, L’Evènement Précis] (Benin)
 * Gérard Guédègbé, Secretary General at Forum of African Investigative Reporting FAIR (Benin/South Africa)
 * Olga Kokodé, Golfe TV ( Benin)
 * Franck Assah, Panapress Panafricain (Togo)
 * Mike Serwornoo, ATL University of Cape Coast (Ghana)

Also present were Alain Adoun, President of REJE-PLT (Benin/Togo); Patrick Lin Gérard Djossou, previously editor in chief of Le Matin (Senegal); and Usman Shehu, Deutsche Welle (Germany).

Panel Topics included self-regulation of the media in elections reporting, the journalist’s social responsibility, the Internet in elections reporting, and pitfalls in reporting.

Publications and Presentations

 * A Streaming video of the 2009 CIME Forum