The Impact of Media Concentration on Professional ... - OSCE

them to be protected against undue external influences. Thiscould be done by reductions for taxes on paper or VAT ashas been practised for a long time in many OSCE countries.– Develop guiding principles for the editorial independence<strong>of</strong> editors and pr<strong>of</strong>essional journalists from both pressurefrom the publisher and the political and/or industrialarena. Such principles should be developed in close cooperationwith publishers and pr<strong>of</strong>essional editorial staffand should, once introduced on a voluntary basis, be bindingand therefore legally enforceable. <strong>The</strong> already existingprinciples established by the OSCE Representative on Freedom<strong>of</strong> the <strong>Media</strong> and signed by the German WAZ groupand the Norwegian publishing house Orkla could be takenas valuable examples.– Facilitate and <strong>of</strong>fer council to media companies willingto introduce voluntary guidelines for editorial independencesimilar to principles established, for example, by Orkla,Springer and WAZ.– Increase the “market value” <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>essional journalists bystrengthening their intellectual property rights and notoriety,making it obligatory to identify individual authors <strong>of</strong>articles by publishing their full names.– Strengthen the bargaining position <strong>of</strong> pr<strong>of</strong>essional journalistsand their right to choose their employer freely bymaking, in the case <strong>of</strong> changing jobs, the contributions tocompany pension schemes transferable to other media companies.– Guarantee pr<strong>of</strong>essional journalists sufficient salaries, socialsecurity and pensions in order to eliminate their economicdependency on additional income from other sources, thussafeguarding independent and impartial journalistic work.CONCLUSIONS 189