This issue compromises a selection of papers presented at the Inaugural International Media Ethics Conference held in Canberra Australia in July 2002. The papers selected are representative of some of the central themes of the conference, such as managing the newsroom and editorial independence, limits on press freedom, ethical standards and credibility, investigative journalism, and commercial constraints on the media. The first paper argues for a media ethics regime that employs an ethical risk management approach to media ethics not unlike that employed routinely in assessing financial risk and strategies for minimizing that risk in business and other institutional corporations. The next paper proposes that although a good character is relevant to journalism the formation of character nevertheless is "a process that requires a conducive environment, which is to say, an environment shaped by regulations. " The reflection on the inherent conflict between the media's function as providers of information to the public and their function as corporate businesses whose primary aim is to make money for their shareholders is the theme of the third paper. Finally, the last paper gives preference to the notion of autonomy over that of truth.