"Self-regulation works, as long as everyone’s on board. Scandinavia’s press councils are independent organizations, staffed and (for the most part) funded by the journalism industry, that were established to give readers a place to bring grievances against news outlets. Each one is like a combination ombudsman and courtroom: the reader with the complaint and the news organization in question have their say, and then a group of journalists, editors, and members of the public decide whether to uphold or deny the complaint. If they decide that the news organization has broken the journalistic code of ethics, the organization must pay penance by printing or broadcasting a notice saying so. Involvement in the press council system is voluntary, but pretty much every news organization in each country belongs; audiences recognize the outlets’ signing up for such scrutiny as a kind of stamp of accountability. “This is like the… what do you call it in America?” asks Kjell Nyhuus, one of the secretaries at Norway’s press council. “The fox that watches the henhouse. But it is a very good fox! A very serious fox.”"
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:13:05 +0000
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