Press Freedom and Globalisation - International Press Institute

Press Freedom and Globalisation
from Reporters Sans Frontieres, based in Paris, through 53 questions. Further, World Press
Freedom Committee coordinates the majority international organisations concerned with
press freedom. 20 WPFC’s criteria for press freedom are formulated in twenty questions, for
instance such as: “Are there restrictive press laws, are journalists in jail, is libel a civil or
criminal offense?” and “Is government advertising allocated fairly?” 21
Debates on press freedom and hence, the press’ responsibility, are often a hot
issue. 22 The question is, how can responsibility be developed when the press claims
independence? In many countries the media have introduced their own system of codes of
ethics. The purpose has been to create a sense of professional responsibility, as well as to
provide the industry with a system of conflict resolution. The idea is that in such a system,
the government will not interfere with the details of the media’s behaviour and would not
be a part of the conflict resolutions – except in the most serious cases which appear in the
court. Such a system, made and introduced by the press itself, would be considered as the
practice of press freedom. A similar system, made and introduced by the government, may
be considered as an attack on press freedom. As a part of the global spread of press
freedom, a corresponding system of self-governing codes of ethics for the mass media
emerge in more and more countries. 23 These are typically administered by media councils
initiated by the press itself.
20 Becker, Lee B., Vlad, Tudor and Nusser, Nancy, Measuring Press Freedom: A Technical Report (Athens, USA:
Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Georgia, 2004), pp. 1-8, 14-15 and 34-39.
21 World Press Freedom Committee: “Criteria for Press Freedom”,
http://www.wpfc.org/index.jsp?page=Criteria%20For%20Press%20Freedom, downloaded 28 th March,
2005. WPFC’s homepage: http://www.wpfc.org/
22 Oloo, J. B., “Why media freedom is so vital” in Daily Nation (Nairobi: Nation Media Group), reader’s
letter, 21 st December, 2003; and Ngari, Johnson L., “Freedom of the Press and its responsibility” in East
African Standard (Nairobi: The Standard Ltd.), commentary, 27 th April, 2004.
23 Herbert, Practising Global Journalism, pp. 69-75.
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