Memos

“Journalism Ethics and self-regulation in Europe: new media, old dilemmas”

“A cold wind is blowing over Europe”  - speech by Jan Kleijssen, Director of Standard Setting, Directorate General of Human Rights and Legal Affairs, the Council of Europe.

Journalism 2020  Maintaining Professionalism, Regaining Credibility

The Media and Information Society Division participated in the international “Journalism 2020” conference in Vienna (18-20 March 2010). The conference was gathering a group of editors, media journalists, media managers and communication researchers from Europe and the US to talk about the future of journalism in view of the challenges of new media. Issues discussed included new qualities, levels of  professionalization and challenges to journalism in new technological environments. The participants agreed on the need to explore new methods of studies and research to cover current media developments, mostly including research on citizen journalism, media management as well as credibility, accountability and transparency of media in the digital age.

The conference was organized by Medienhaus Wien, European Journalism Observatory and MAZ - the Swiss School of Journalism.

Future or funeral?

The Secretary of the Council of Europe Steering Committee on the Media and New Communication Services took part in a hearing  on the future of public service media, held on the premises of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) on 23 January. Issues discussed included the relations between media and politics, the need for providing sufficient funding and the advantages and drawbacks of different funding modalities, and also the opportunities offered by alternative means of public sector delivery of media services.

Participants agreed on the need to preserve and, in certain cases, further develop public service media in the interest of democracy and democratic processes, highlighting in this respect the importance of Council of Europe standards. The statements made during the hearing will be available shortly at www.futureorfuneral.pl

10th ICANN Studienkreis - Barcelona, January 21-22

The CDMC Secretariat participated at the 10th meeting of the ICANN Studienkreis - an open network of individuals from the private sector, academia, the civil society, the media and the government. The work ongoing at the Council of Europe on cross-border Internet issues and the underlying concept of public service value of the Internet was explained to the participants. Discussions on new general Top Level Domains and Internationalised Top Level Domains illustrated the potential that processes of technical management and coordination hold for realising/enhancing freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, democratic participation and availability of local language content on the Internet.