Hacking away at the truth

This is the text of The Guardian editor’s Orwell lecture on journalism and the phone-hacking scandal, given at University College, London on Nov. 10, 2011.

Thank you for asking me to give this lecture.

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have become a journalist were it not for George Orwell. His collected Essays, Journalism and Letters appeared in a four volume Penguin edition in 1968, when I was about 15. I bought them one at a time with my saved pocket money … and read every word. And, with each essay and article, I learned more about politics; about observation; and about …

ONO-president Jacob Mollerup’s address to The World Newspaper Congress and The World Editors Forum in Vienna

ONO-president Jacob Mollerup’s address to The World Newspaper Congress and The World Editors Forum in Vienna on October 15^th, 2011. The 2011 World Newspaper Congress and The Worlds Editors Forum in Vienna had ethics on the programme – heavily influenced by the phone hacking scandal in the UK.

A joint session (moderated by professor Roy Greenslade from UK) asked the question “Profit, public interest, ethics – where to draw the line?”.

ONO-president Jacob Mollerup was the first panellist to give his thoughts. This is his opening remarks on where to draw the line:

“Before trying to answer …

Who stands for the public in Murdoch vs the government?

Editor’s introduction: In this essay, Geoffrey Robertson QC, who has extensive experience representing media companies and free speech cases, explores the role of the Leveson Inquiry, established by UK Prime Minister David Cameron in July to conduct a “judge-led inquiry into the culture, practices, and ethics of the press and the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within News International and other newspaper organisations.” Robertson places the inquiry in the historical context of media regulation in the UK. He casts a skeptical eye on the prospects for meaningful media, especially given the failures of past similar attempts and the low credibility of the UK’s Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in either protecting privacy or enforcing its ethical rulings.He then explores various proposed alternative structures to media regulation. Since the essay deals with UK-specific material, British grammar conventions have been preserved.

Ombudsman mandate review launched

CBC/Radio-Canada have launched a review of the mandate for their ombudsmen.

The review follows last year’s update of CBC Journalistic Standards and Practices and deals specifically with the role of the ombudsmen in the current media landscape. The mandate has not been reviewed for several years.

CBC president Hubert T. Lacroix says social media and the Internet have changed the way in which the corporation does business, so “it’s important that we understand new media’s impact, either real or potential, on the mandate and role of our ombudsmen.”

Roundtable focues on media self-regulation in Turkey

A group of senior Turkish journalists and international experts met in Istanbul to discuss media self-regulation and ombudsman mechanisms in a national roundtable. This meeting started the second series of events initiated by UNESCO within the framework of the project, Alignment to International Standards in the Media Sector of South-East European Countries.

Democracy, media and (cyber) ombudsmen

Former ONO president and Guardian Readers Editor Ian Mayes spoke at a national round table for Turkey in Istanbul on Sept. 21, 2010, part of a regional program for media in south-east Europe financed jointly by the European Commission and UNESCO.

Discussing a dilemma

Members of ONO recently discussed an issue concerning complaints, fairness, balance, and ethical dilemmas. The conversation took place via e-mail. It is re-posted here to serve as an example of the thinking and clarity ombudsmen bring to their jobs.

Keeping Tabs on the Times

Part journalistic Renaissance man, part regular guy, former reporter, columnist, editor, publisher and corporate executive, Arthur Brisbane is the new public editor of The New York Times.

Read more: Keeping Tabs on the Times…

Funny kind of name: Ombudsman

NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard speaks with one of NPR’s summer interns about the “loneliest job in the newsroom.”

Press councils’ choice: make big changes, or fade to black

Press councils across Canada are declining because they lack relevance, credibility and money, writes Brian Gabrial. Yet the need for a watchdog over journalism’s ethics has never been greater, and it’s time to choose between accepting a slow death and taking some bold—and controversial—moves.