The Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO) has a firm commitment: We strongly believe media should be both free and accountable. And we offer a practical solution to the latter: The concept of the independent, resident ombudsman.

All over the world this model has repeatedly proven to be a simple and yet effective way of self-regulation. At the same time it’s a practical method of having a more open relationship between news media and their audiences.

Our aim is to promote self- regulation in general and the concept of news ombudsmen in particular. That’s our core function. We do so by spreading the word. By sharing good practices. By being the global meeting place and discussion forum for news ombudsmen as well as for many others engaged in debates on self regulation and press freedom.

We carry out our work in a media environment, which is undergoing profound transformations. Old business models are on the verge of collapse and new ones are gaining ground. We try hard to be on top of this development.

ONO was founded in the US three decades ago – and with a membership of primarily readers’ editors from newspapers all over the country.

Today ONO is an international organization with members from 20 countries on five continents. The last annual conference took place at the Reuters Institute in Oxford, UK. For the first time in ONO’s history the majority of the ombudsmen attending came from television or radio.

A few years ago a large group of ONO-members was hit by budget cuts at U.S. newspapers. Today the outlook is better. The situation in the U.S. seems to have been stabilized for the time being. And at the same time ombudsmanship is spreading to more and more TV and radio stations and to big web-based media seeking the greater trustworthiness that comes with having an ombudsman. The concept also reaches new countries and regions. The growth is not strong – but it’s steady and diversified.

ONO does not count all media ombudsmen around the world as its members yet. But we are working hard to get there – and at least to be in touch with all of them.

We are aiming to expand the ombudsman-concept geographically – and consequently, we are engaged in a number of outreach activities around the world. We want to expand the ombudsman-concept to new types of media. And we aim at cooperating more closely with individuals and organizations involved in the world of media self-regulation.

An important part of this is to make ONO multilingual. We hope to be able to introduce our web-site in Spanish, French and Mandarin before the next ONO-conference.

In 2011 we plan to meet either in Cartagena, Columbia or in Tucson, Arizona. More about this in the fall.

I have just taken over the position as president from Stephen Pritchard, the readers’ editor at The Observer. Stephen has really done a great job during the last couple of years in order to invigorate and expand ONO. I will try to carry on in that tradition.

In order to reach our many goals, we will have to engage ONO-members and friends of ONO more actively. We need to get more funding – and at the same time work pro bono in order to promote self-regulation, transparency and press freedom.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with ONO to join us in this important work. We are looking forward to hearing new ideas, discussing new challenges and improving our outreach activities.

You can see the contact info of the board and of our executive director – Jeffrey Dvorkin – here. And our web-editor Kerry Sipe can be reached here.

We are looking forward to hear from you – and to get your perspective on how to deliver the best virtues of good journalism and good ombudsmanship into the new media world.

Jacob Mollerup
ONO President
Listeners and Viewers Editor
Danish Broadcasting Corp.