The website, formerly known as Media Accountable Systems, compiles codes of media ethics from around the world and describes itself as "the largest resource of its kind." The revamped site provides a user-friendly and searchable web application and includes additional codes of ethics and links on hate speech, a problem both online and offline.  

The 400-plus codes can be searched by originating country as well as topic, type of organization, region and date of creation, according to an announcement by the Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) and Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI).  The two partnered to update the original database, which was a collection of media codes and press councils aggregated by Claude-Jean Bertrand in 2002 and managed by RJI.

“The relevance of media codes has never been more pertinent than they are in today’s communications landscape,” Aidan White, director of the EJN, said in a statement. “With the number of voices and the rapid exchanges on the Internet increasing, ethical journalism is needed more than ever to protect the integrity of free expression. It is important work to encourage the development of media codes and how they relate to acts of journalism.”

Randy Picht, RJI’s executive director, said, “The new search flexibility alone will give media professionals, educators and students terrific new insights into the important subject of media ethics around the world.”

The EJN and RJI will be hosting an online streaming debate entitled Cracking the Code to Accountable and Ethical Journalism on November 23rd at 3pm GMT. The debate can be viewed live on the EJN Google Plus page at this link. Participants can submit their questions for the panel to the page.