What is the purpose of a code of ethics for the press?

Journalism plays a crucial role in democratic societies, but the ability of journalists to
perform that role is jeopardised by a profound crisis of trust in the profession. One response
often employed by press councils is to refresh their code of ethics, but what purpose do such
codes serve and can they make any difference to how journalists actually behave or relate to
the public? Drawing on Jonathan Wolff’s idea of ‘engaged philosophy’, we outline the
problems to which codes may be an answer and provide a taxonomy of the purposes they
may then fulfil. We lay out four possible roles for codes and argue they can all make a
worthwhile contribution to raising press standards and justifying higher levels of public trust.
We substantiate our discussion by examining the codes of ethics of press councils in twelve
European countries, along with the IMPRESS and IPSO codes in the UK, to determine which
of these functions they are explicitly intended to serve. We conclude that there is scope to
make greater use of codes to improve the ethical culture in newsrooms.