This article published on CyberJournalist.net deals with the recent debate blogger's have been having about ethical standards for blogging.

Blogger's are arguing they should not have to follow the same code of ethics as journalists because not all bloggers are journalists, and because blogging is more casual than strict journalism.

However, an argument raised is that bloggers write for a public audience and should therefore have some sort of ethical bindings because their opinions can influence many of their readers'.

Therefore CyberJournalist.net has created a model Bloggers' Code of Ethics, by modifying the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics in order to make it more adaptive to the Weblog world.

The article argues that integrity is the cornerstone of credibility and that bloggers who adopt their code of principles and standards will be ethical publishers which conveys to their readers they can be trusted.

The article outlines three main parts to its Code of Ethics

1. Be Honest and Fair
2. Minimize Harm
3. Be Accountable

The CyberJournalist.net Code of Ethics can be found in its entirety here.

It is noteworthy however, that this code of ethics is specific to this one website and has not been adopted as a standard. At this point in time each Blogger is his or her own editor and publisher, and they have the freedom of publishing what ever they please. Will this always stay the case?

Only time will tell.