Self-control and dialogue in midst of controversy — lessons from Denmark

Good afternoon everyone.  Thank you so much for this opportunity to address the issue of public service broadcasting and ombudsmanship!

As we all know, news ombudsmen and readers editors are used at some of the best newspapers in the world. Washington Post was one of the innovators. Folha de Sao Paolo, Le Monde, The New York Times, The Guardian and many others have followed the example during the last decades.

This kind of ombudsmanship builds on a strong tradition. Every newspaper has its own way of doing it, but the basics are the same. In other words: Here you have a well…

Free press vital for transparent society, say journalists

Journalists always desire free, courageous, bold and independent journalism, and this leads to transparency in society, said the vice chairman of the International Organization of News Ombudsmen, or ONO, at a conference in Istanbul, entitled “Professional Standards and Self-Regulation in Media and the State of Play of …Media Policy in Southeast Europe.”

“Our main goal is to fight corruption, unfairness, injustice and crimes of humanity as well as moral and political values,” said Yavuz Baydar, who also works at daily Sabah. “Only clear and open press can contribute to an open and clear society. For media, it is vital to be…

How Google changed the role of news ombudsmen

Mercedes Bunz, media blogger for guardian.co.uk, considers the effect that the Internet has had on news ombudsmen.

An excerpt:

“Now, with newspapers archives online all the time, news doesn’t vanish after publication, and ombudsmen and women are confronted with a new problem: search.

“Today, news organisations gather a lo…t of online traffic through search engines. However, using Google to search for details about someone can damage their life if the wrong article comes up. ”

Read the entire blog post.

Krüger, Franz

Franz Krüger, ombudsman
Mail & Guardian
P.O. Box 91667
Auckland Park, Johannesburg
2006
South Africa.
Telephone: +27 11 486 1109
Mobile telephone: +27 82 903 4196
E-mail: ombud@mg.co.za or fkr@mweb.co.za

British j-blog examines ONO’s online initiative

The Organisation of News Ombudsmen this month stepped up its digital act: with a new blog, a new site, and by dipping its toes into the Twitter waters, reports journalism.co.uk

Read the entire blog post.

It’s not a spoiler, it’s news

“I’ve decided to remove LA Times as my homepage since they spoil the results of EVERY Olympic event.”

It seems a lot of people are not pleased with news organizations reporting results of Olympic games hours before they are broadcast on TV. Results appear on Web sites, in e-mail alerts and on Twitter.

Managing Editor Sean Gallagher, who oversees latimes.com, said The Times is simply doing its job:

“The Times has also been receiving complaints about the tweets we are sharing — and not just about the Olympics. In most cases our policy is simple: We report news as it happens. To do otherwise would clearly damage our credibility as impartial observers of events. Worse, it would make us an agent of the NBC Olympics marketing machine.”

Even NBC reveals the results on its Olympics Web page.

Be yourself, not ‘Ellie Light,’ when writing a letter to the editor

Benjamin Franklin once posed as a middle-aged widow named “Silence Dogood” to get his letters published in his brother’s newspaper. Recently, a letter to the editor from “Ellie Light” managed to appear in more than 40 newspapers across the United States.

As Ted Diadiun, reader representative at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, notes, some “electronic gumshoeing” by two Plain Dealer journalists exposed “Ellie Light” as a Californian named Winston Steward.

Full disclosure for journalists

Two recent suggestions of conflict of interest in work published in the Toronto Star made clear the reality that perception truly does matter. In both cases, Star Public Editor Kathy English says she did not find any evidence that the journalists involved distorted their work to their own interests. But, she says, “it seems to me that these journalists did not fully consider the imperative to avoid even the perception of a conflict by either stepping away from the assignment or disclosing to readers any facts that might lead to the perception of a conflict.”

Roethof, Guikje

Guikje Roethof
NOS Ombudsman
P.O. Box 26600
1202 JT Hilversum
The Netherlands
Telephone: +31 35 6774527
Mobile: + 31 6 5086 6943
Fax: + 31 35 624 20 23
Email: guikje.roethof@nos.nl
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Edgar, Deirdre

Deirdre Edgar, readers’ representative
Los Angeles Times
202 W. First St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Telephone: 1-800-LATIMES, ext. 77248
E-mail: readers.representative@latimes.com
Twitter: @LATreadersrep
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