Press councils, a solution?

The three booklets published in 2008 deals with journalism’s regulation, following the example of what Claude Jean Bertrand called « M.A.R.S » (Media Accountability and Responsability System).

Press councils are regulatoring bodies which have been created to deal with the abuses and the most egregious violations to the journalists’ ethic code. The first one was founded in Sweden in 1916, today there are over a hundred in the world , but France is still refusing such an instance.

Conveniently composed of three parts, press council meets publishers, journalists and audience. Based on deontological codes and charters to ensure compliance with the principles that the profession acquires at the national level, the press council is also a place of monitoring the profession’s practice. Preventing of the heavy constraints of a legal tribunal, such an authority give most often moral sanctions : the release of its opinion. Far from stigmatizing the profession, press council is made to protect journalists.