The Society of Professional Journalists, one of the nation’s largest and oldest journalism advocacy organizations, has developed a new educational service to help people understand the tenets of responsible journalism and the importance of a free press.

SPJ’s Journalism Education Series is set to launch later this year under the auspices of the society’s new Speakers Bureau. The series and the bureau aim to inform the general public about some of the core principles of good journalism. Other aspects of the series will focus on maintaining the free flow of public information, journalism ethics and the importance of diversity in the news-gathering process.

SPJ will select experienced journalists and experts in media ethics and media law to devise the series’ curriculum and instruct all series participants.

In part, the program is a response to the high-profile journalism scandals of the past years, from Jayson Blair’s fabrications at The New York Times, to invention of sources by USA Today’s Jack Kelley to columnist Armstrong Williams being secretly paid by the Bush Administration to promote the No Child Left Behind Act.

It’s crucial that both reporters and media relations professionals uphold journalistic standards. If the credibility of the press is diminished, the value of media relations plummets in tandem. The SPJ program promises to bring greater transparency to the newsgathering process, which should have benefits for anyone who cares about shoring up journalism ethics.