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  • Open door: The independent pursuit of freedom: The readers' editor o

    Open door: The independent pursuit of freedom: The readers' editor on ... a
    conference of European press councils in Cyprus

    The Guardian - United Kingdom
    Oct 16, 2004

    IAN MAYES

    Last week I went to the annual huddle of the Alliance of Independent
    Press Councils of Europe (AIPCE) to speak about the still fairly rare
    form of self-regulation that we try to practise at the Guardian. I
    was invited by the hosts, the Cyprus Media Complaints Commission,
    and we met in the divided city of Nicosia.

    Unless you are involved in the self-regulation of the press you are
    unlikely to have heard of the AIPCE, a useful and, deliberately,
    fairly informal association of self-regulation bodies that began
    meeting about six years ago at the joint suggestion of the British
    Press Complaints Commission and its counterpart in the Netherlands.

    In the relatively short period that it has been in existence, it
    has become a major forum for exchanging ideas, sharing experience,
    and in particular, most recently, for the support and encouragement
    of the press councils that are emerging in eastern Europe - in the
    former Soviet Union, in former Yugoslavia, and in countries such as
    Bulgaria. Half of the independent press councils in the world have
    been formed since 1990, and a third since 2000. The growth among
    members of the European alliance reflects that pattern.

    The new European members have found among their colleagues in the
    older established bodies - such as the PCC in Britain - a ready
    response to requests for help and advice. The PCC has, in fact,
    provided consultative services since not long after its foundation
    in 1991. An assistant director, William Gore, coordinates its work
    overseas. He says: "It is important for us to get involved when and
    where we are wanted, if our help is sought." The director of the PCC,
    Tim Toulmin, is keen on this work, like his predecessor, Guy Black.

    The PCC has had a direct involvement in, for example, the establishment
    of a press council in Bosnia- Herzogovina where it went, initially,
    at the invitation of a European commission agency there. The former
    acting chairman of the PCC, Professor Robert Pinker, having gone
    there as a consultant, became the first international chairman of
    the Bosnian press council, a post to which he expects a Bosnian to
    be elected in May next year.

    Prof Pinker told me, "The Bosnian press council could not have started
    under more difficult circumstances. Now it is fair to call it one
    of the truly national bodies. We are in the process of extending the
    range of members to make it even more representative."

    The PCC has also been quick to put its experience, on request, at the
    disposal of projects initiated by others. I have personal experience
    of one of these, a programme to establish press and media councils in
    two pilot schemes in Russia, one in Nizhny Novgorod, to the east of
    Moscow, and the other in the south at Rostov-on-Don. I visited both
    places with PPC representatives when the project was just beginning.

    The guiding hand has been provided by the Programme in Comparative
    Media Law and Policy at Oxford University. It has worked with the
    Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute and local people over the past
    three years and - as the Russian delegates reported at the Cyprus
    conference - the scheme is now showing positive signs of success. I
    hope to report on that more fully later this year.

    The problems faced by the media in this and other areas represented
    at the conference are daunting. There is something chastening to
    see the dedication and courage being brought to the task of trying
    to develop and protect a press free from state interference and
    corruption. These efforts are often taking place in a context in
    which there is no tradition of the principal elements in society even
    meeting and talking, let alone trusting each other.

    The key requirement that any press council must fulfil to be worthy
    of the name, in the opinion of members of the European alliance,
    is independence - it needs great effort in many countries to carry
    it beyond aspiration.

    Delegates in Cyprus came from, among other places, Albania, Armenia,
    Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Ukraine, and, as I have
    already mentioned, Russia and Bosnia. The struggle they are involved
    in provides a reminder that self-regulation, with the long and often
    difficult process of agreeing an editorial code that usually precedes
    it, promotes and protects a free press against repression. It is easy
    to forget this as we pick over the imperfections of our own system.

    Ian Mayes is vice president of the Organisation of News
    Ombudsmen. Readers may contact the office of the readers' editor by
    calling 0845 451 9589 (UK only, calls are at local rate) or +44 (0)20
    7713 4736, 11am to 5pm UK time Monday to Friday excluding UK bank
    holidays. Mail to Readers' editor, The Guardian, 119 Farringdon Road,
    London EC1R 3ER, UK. Fax +44 (0)20 7239 9997. [email protected]

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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