"The project seeks to restore confidence in the media in South East Europe and Turkey. The focus is on improving media accountability mechanisms, media internal governance, and media and information literacy among citizens to strengthen civil society support for the media and demand for quality medi
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a." (Page 3)
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"In developing countries, the media is often confronted by a combination of factors that create fertile grounds for corruption, such as lack of training and technical skills, low professional standards, limited financial resources, opaque or government controlled ownership structures, inadequate and
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undemocratic legal frameworks. Types of corruption in the media vary from bribery in the form of cash for news, staged or fake news, gift giving, concealed advertisement to nepotism and capture by vested private or political interests. Fighting corruption in the media can involve a wide range of approaches, varying from raising awareness of ethical standards, strengthening the freedom of the press, introducing adequate media policies and legislation, promoting media accountability as well as supporting investigative journalism through technical training." (Summary)
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"With all the organized efforts to support media development and defend press freedom around the world, there has been remarkably little done in any concerted way to reduce the problem of corrupt journalism", states this report. Ristow proposes that international journalism organizations should issu
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e regular reports documenting instances in which journalists have received, or extorted, payment for news as a clear sign of acknowledging this "dark side" of the profession and take the lead in documenting, and publicizing, the pay levels of journalists around the world. Media development organizations should sharpen their focus on ethics training and support the creation and nurture of media accountability systems such as ombudsmen. News media owners, managers, and editors should adopt, publicize, and then stick to a firm policy of zero tolerance for any form of cash for news coverage - from simple "facilitation" payments to reporters to paid ads masquerading as objective news -, review pay policies and take the initiative in creating accountability systems on their own." (commbox)
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"1. The media development community should work within individual media houses to create in-house, publicly reported complaint systems rather than relying solely on outside press councils to do the job. 2. Funding groups should encourage media criticism, in forms such as local journalism reviews. 3.
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Press councils and ombudsmen should be adequately funded from a variety of sources (NGOs, media organizations, international donors) while safe-guarding their independence. 4. In the establishment of a press council, there must be an effective mechanism to avoid, or greatly reduce, the possibility that complainants will take advantage of defamation laws and take their issues to court rather than to the council. 5. To be effective, press councils and ombudsmen should focus on journalistic standards: ethical behavior (such as not accepting payment for stories), fairness, balance, and using appropriate and varied sources for information." (Summary of recommendations, page 7)
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"This is an evaluation of the project “Promoting Professionalism, Independence and Accountability in Sri Lanka” under the Sri Lanka Press Institute, SLPI. SLPI has two major departments: the Press Complaints Commission of Sri Lanka, PCCSL, and the Sri Lanka College of Journalism, SLCJ. PCCSL is
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a self-regulatory body for press ethics, while SLCJ is running a one-year diploma course in journalism and a number of short term mid-career courses for working journalists. The major funding of the SLPI has come from Sida and Norad for the period 2003–2006. This has been supplemented by funding from DANIDA towards the end of this period. The Institute for Further Education of Journalists, Fojo, has been the Swedish partner to SLPI to support institutional capacity building [...] During a short duration of less than three years SLPI has achieved a lot. The institute is up and running. Most of the practical aspects of setting up an institute have been achieved. In addition, a whole new section for the training of TV and radio journalists which was not on the original plan has been established. Most journalists we met agreed about the concept of self-regulation and commended the SLPI for pioneering the concept. The courses conducted by the College and Fojo have acceptance within the media industry. Despite these achievements, SLPI has been going through a certain degree of turmoil in recent times, mainly linked to management issues. Hence the organisation has entered a period where it needs to sort out these issues and consolidate itself." (Executive summary)
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