6 November 2006 – The University of Lincoln Faculty of Media and Humanities has conferred the title Visiting Professor in Media Ethics on MediaWise Director Mike Jempson. The award is made to ‘an individual of academic and/or professional standing whose association with a department of the university department will provide the highest possible source of advice and wise counsel to that discipline nationally and internationally’.

Responding to the award Professor Jempson said: “This is an unexpected and very pleasing honour. It is gratifying to know that the work done by MediaWise over the last 13 years has won such recognition from a university department whose staff place a premium on ethical journalism. Indeed today (6 Nov 06) Lincoln is launching of a new award, the Munton Medallion, to encourage students to show an ethical understanding in their personal lives and relationships.

“I should like to place on record my particular thanks to Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Brian Winston, and Professors Sylvia Harvey, Richard Keeble and John Tulloch with whom it has been my privilege to work at different times over the last 25 years. I hope I shall be able to live up to their expectations and those of the university.”

Having dabbled in journalism as a school student and while an undergraduate at Sussex University in the 1960s, Mike Jempson entered full-time journalism in 1977 on the East London Advertiser, after years as a community activist with a keen eye for engaging the media in campaigns.

He recently returned from Georgia where he was commissioned by UNICEF to assist the State University and the Caucasus School of Journalism and Media Management introduce a module on Reporting Children. Next weekend he is running a Training of Trainers weekend with the Media Diversity Institute in London, designed in part to provide new work opportunities for exiled journalists in the UK.

Later this month he is a keynote speaker at a Symposium on the Media and Suicide at the National Chengchi University in Taipei, and will address students and staff at several other universities in Taiwan about the importance of responsible reporting of suicide.

Media coverage of children, health, suicide and minorities has been a key element of his work with MediaWise. He also provides advice to complainants, develops guidelines and training materials on problematic issues, and runs campaigns like the Refugees, Asylum-seekers and the Media (RAM) Project which gave rise to the Exiled Journalists Network based in the new MediaWise office at the University of the West of England.

In the summer he produced a Tipsheet on Reporting Children in Crisis for the Reuters Foundation Alertnet website, and Talking to Journalists: A guide for young people.

Prof. Jempson has trained journalists in over 25 countries, working mostly with UN agencies and the International Federation of Journalists.

His recent publications include:
* Exiled Journalists in Europe
(With Rich Cookson & Forward Maisokwadzo) MediaWise, 2006 ISBN 0-954760-9-6
* Working with the Media: A handbook for health communicators
World Health Communication Associates/European Public Health Alliance/European     Environmental Network/MediaWise, 2005 ISBN 0-9547620-2-9
* The RAM Report: Campaigning for fair coverage of refugees & asylum-seekers
(with Rich Cookson) MediaWise, 2005 ISBN 0-9547620-4-5
* The Media and Children’s Rights: a handbook for media professionals (2rd Edition)
UNICEF/MediaWise, 1999 & 2005 ISBN 0-9547620-3-7
* Satisfaction Guaranteed: Press complaints systems under scrutiny
(with Rich Cookson) MediaWise, 2004 ISBN 0-9547620-4-5

(Bulletin No 127)