The book “Ethics, a Shield for Professional Journalism” by journalist, publicist, and UBT professor Musa Sabedini has been published

08/01/2025

Professor Musa Sabedini of the Faculty of Media and Communication at UBT has published his third university book titled: “Ethics, a Shield for Professional Journalism,” which is dedicated to journalism students, media researchers, investigative journalists, and professional editors.

In the book’s preface, the author stated that this latest book, “Ethics, a Shield for Professional Journalism,” comes at a time when Kosovar media in general is covered and accompanied by many errors and shortcomings that harm journalistic ethics.

“The book also came as a result of my tireless work over several years, during which I have strived to advance ethics in all its dimensions. My over 33 years of experience in informative and investigative journalism, another over 13 years of experience as the founder of an influential portal, and just as many years as part of the KMShK Board, enabled me to learn a lot about the daily mistakes made by portals and the many shortcomings that appear during online journalism.”

Professor and publicist Musa Sabedini said that in the book, he has elaborated on and addressed the role of ethics in journalism, in media, and the role of ethics in daily life, in our writings and texts that we publish every moment.

“Ethics is the essence of professional journalism, because if a journalist lacks personal ethics, they will find it difficult to apply collective ethics or to respect ethics in public life.

It is not by chance that it has been said that without ethics, there is no journalism. Ethics is the spirit and the detail that strengthens every article, report, analysis, or journalistic text. If we have respected ethics, we have automatically become responsible to ourselves and to our readers. Good ethics, authoritative ethics in journalism and media, is a cure for an emancipated society. Of course, ethics should not only be preserved or advanced by the media and journalists, because it must also be respected by readers, and by those who are our eyes and ears for our daily work,” wrote Professor Sabedini.

He stated that in his professional life, he has always tried to prioritize ethics, without neglecting powerful or investigative writing.

“I have tried to make the book complete, offering many notions, definitions, guidelines, agendas, and diverse opinions for and about ethics in journalism. I have referenced hundreds of American, Canadian, Japanese, Turkish, German, Austrian, Indian, Croatian, Albanian researchers, and experts from various fields related to ethics.

So, in the book, I have also discussed many cases and examples of ethical violations and have also provided cases on how ethics should be preserved.

My goal is always a complete alternative, not leaving my skill, knowledge, and long experience in journalism up in the air. I have spoken with great competence about many deviant phenomena in online journalism in Kosovo and the region and have offered analyses, results, and useful overviews for students, researchers, editors, and portal owners.

The book is built from my many years of archives, with four awards won in the field of investigative journalism, and is crowned with the last years of my active life at UBT, as a lecturer of four journalism courses, where I have certainly advanced academic and research-level journalism even further, by participating in 12 international conferences,” Sabedini emphasized.

But what is the message of the long-time journalist and educator, who mentored many generations at UBT?

“The book would have an effect if these shortcomings and weaknesses, which I have described in detail, find practical application in daily life by the new generations of professional journalists.

I have done something that has been missing in Kosovo until now, because a book on Journalism Ethics, with the exception of translations, by Albanian authors,”as far as I know, there isn’t, but this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t move forward. It is up to others to write and debate about ethics in television, in radio, about ethics in communication,” Sabedini further wrote.

Otherwise, the book has three chapters, and each of them encompasses themes that are primarily related to Ethics.

In the first chapter, I have treated and confronted the theory of ethics, the sphere of ethics, its codes and principles, definitions of ethics, its importance in journalism, the essence of ethics, its importance, the challenges it carries, I have written extensively about hate speech, disinformation, privacy, defamation, fake news, about the ethical values of news, about ethical principles, about unethical reporting in Kosovar media, about the legal damages caused by ethics, about ethical violations, about the challenges of ethical journalism.

Whereas, in the second chapter, I have dealt with the credibility of the journalist, with ethics in journalism and media, with plagiarism and copy-paste news, I have provided many practical examples of portals that have violated ethical codes, I have provided guidelines and positions of the KMSHK, KPM, as two mechanisms that deal with the self-regulation of online and television media, about ethics in photos, videos and videography, about vulgar insults and violence on our televisions, about the deaths of personalities from the world, where ethics were violated, and case studies of deaths, even of famous people in Kosovo, who were attacked with ethical violations by the media, about the honesty of the journalist and the problems that digital media has in implementing ethics, about the advantages and disadvantages of ethical codes.

The third chapter also consists of interesting materials, where I have addressed the dilemmas of ethics, the damages caused by TikTok, social networks and social media, which are described with extreme ethical violations, about ethics in Blogs and bloggers, about abuse during accidents, murders, suicides, domestic violence, about self-regulation and standards of online media, about the most accepted ethical principles, about conflict of interest and the quality of portals in the field of ethics, etc.

Meanwhile, the book’s reviewer, Dr. Safet Zejnullahu, said that the book: “Ethics, a shield for professional journalism,” a new book by the already veteran of Albanian journalism in Kosovo, Musa Sabedini, adds to the series of abundant and qualitative studies and research of the last decade on journalism in the Albanian language in the country.

“But the topic it addresses makes it special and different. Because it addresses a topic which, as everywhere in the world, helps journalists not to make mistakes or to make minimal mistakes, as human errors also exist, it helps the media to become better and more professional, because this is their primary obligation, regardless of whether they sometimes forget it, intentionally or unintentionally,” emphasized Professor Zejnullahu.

According to him, the book comes as a sublimation of the author’s long experience of over thirty years in active field journalism, being part of regulatory bodies of journalism in Kosovo, as well as a professor of journalism, which enables him to address the topics presented for discussion from all three distinct levels: practicing professional journalism without violations, monitoring the violations of others, and observing in practice which qualities and principles young journalists need most today.

“The very dedication of the book ‘to professional journalists and those who have ethics in writing, who experience ethics with body and soul and always work in the service of objective, impartial, and balanced journalism’ shows us the approach the author follows from beginning to end. By conducting a long and exhaustive research into international practices, the author has brought the approach that the developed world has in regulating or self-regulating the media, making it protected and uninfluenced by powers, but also making it accountable to the public and professional.

Meanwhile, by bringing numerous and concrete examples,”The author has managed to provide a complete overview of the state of media in Kosovo, in the age of the internet, when journalism, like many other fields of life, has been strongly endangered by the approach “speed before professionalism” and by the erroneous approach “everyone who publishes something is a journalist”, Zejnullahu added.

Professor Zejnullahu said that “Technology and social networks enable this, but professional journalists and regulatory and self-regulatory bodies are those that must help in this very important transitional period of media in Kosovo, by minimizing “amateur journalism” and by strongly adhering to the principle of professional journalism, which only professionals create, develop, and protect”.

“Based on the content, the abundant and referential literature elaborated by the author, the meritorious examples, and the message that only professionalism protects journalism, I believe that the book “Ethics, a shield for professional journalism” will be a strong tool in the hands of those who practice journalism, to do good and professional journalism and to eliminate the shortcomings that both harm journalism and stifle free thought in a country in transition and development, such as Kosovo.

Kosovo’s journalism is very good, compared to the circumstances in which it develops. Research and books like this one by colleague Musa Sabedini greatly help it to become even better, even more professional”, Zejnullahu concluded.

Otherwise, the book has 520 pages and the publisher is UBT.