5 January to 12 January

Sport and the Ethics of Inclusion

One of the most challenging class sessions in my years of teaching media ethics took place in a British university, in 2001. Students were charged with leading weekly discussions of designated topics. That week's leaders were two women athletes, who hoped to become sports journalists. During a discussion of the ethics of reporting sports and athletes, the classroom exploded. A group of men launched an attack on the presenters, and on women athletes in general. 'Why would anyone want to fund a women's football team?' one man replied, to a comment about the need for equitable treatment of women in sport.

I recently had the pleasure of observing an exemplary alternative to that experience, at the North American Indigenous Games, on Vancouver Island, Canada. The organisers, the Cowichan First Nation that hosted the event, and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network that broadcast it gave equal treatment to female and male athletes. There was no difference in the prominence and energy given to the events themselves or the media coverage. How refreshing! How sad that this is sufficiently unusual to merit special attention. Such treatment is long overdue. It is ironic, though perhaps understandable, that Indigenous people have led the way.

Valerie Alia is Visiting Professor, Centre for Research into Diversity in the professions. Her book Media Ethics and Social Change was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2004.