Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the curator of the Golden Globes awards, released its revised code of professional and ethical conduct on Friday after major studios like Amazon and Netflix refrained to work with it citing issues lack of inclusion and diversity in the association.
However, the Code of Conduct seems to be an extension of the HFPA’s reform plans that it had announced earlier this month.
“We want to be clear that a fundamental pillar of our reform plan is accountability,” the statement reads. “The HFPA condemns any and all forms of harassment, discrimination and abuse. Such behavior is unacceptable and disciplinary action will be taken for violations of our new Code. All members – both new and old — will be expected to follow this new code of conduct, and will be held accountable if they do not.”
The statement also said that the HFPA signed a contract on May 19 with Convercent to establish a hotline that allows HFPA members and non-members to report misconduct within the organisation, promising to maintain anonymity of the calls.
However, the report barely mentioned anything about membership of non-white journalists to the association. The last reform plan had mentioned increasing the membership, currently standing at 87, by 50% before the next Golden Globe Awards.
The measures came in the wake of attacks on the HFPA and the Golden Globes for their lack of inclusivity and receptivity in terms of policy change. The organisation’s first action came after the HFPA expelled former president and veteran member Phil Berk after he shared racist emails with the other members on April 18.
The board was pressured by the Globes’ broadcasting partner NBC Channel, and MRC, the owner of the Globes production company Dick Clark Productions.
Additionally, Globes’ diversity and inclusion advisor, Shaun Harper, resigned the same day over differences with HFPA’s legal advising team headed by Judy Smith.
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The Time’s Up organisation in February called out on the HFPA for its lack of diversity and inclusion after the former revealed that the latter comprises an all-white 87-member committee.
Even in nominations, only six Black artists were nominated. Consequently, as a part of its “transformational changes”, the HFPA announced hiring two third-party advisors, a professor at the University of Southern California, and a firm as an independent counsel.
Harper was the USC professor who, as per The Hollywood Reporter, suggested adding 13 Black members to the existing committee ahead of the 2022 Golden Globes Awards, thereby, also bringing the total membership to 100. Smith slammed Harper for his suggestion during a meeting with Time’s Up representatives Ava DuVernay and Shonda Rhimes.