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

<strong>The</strong> Norwegian media house ORKLA issued “Publishing Principles”that guarantee for the editorial independence <strong>of</strong> theirnewspapers. Is there a similar kind <strong>of</strong> guideline in your company?Fig. 13Yes 67No 330 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100proper guidelines but has adhered to a set <strong>of</strong> principles oneditorial independence outlined by the OSCE Representativeon Freedom <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Media</strong>.All in all, 33 per cent <strong>of</strong> the journalists contacted for thissurvey are working under a corporate protection scheme likeor similar to the Orkla-Principles. (Fig. 13)<strong>The</strong> fact that 89 per cent <strong>of</strong> the returned answers indicatethe desire to see such principles established in their ownworking environment is, however, indicative <strong>of</strong> the level <strong>of</strong>today’s pr<strong>of</strong>essional insecurity in which journalists have towork. (Fig. 14)<strong>The</strong> comments on this specific topic made by many journalistscontacted directly for this survey suggest that lack <strong>of</strong>information on how to deal with a structurally changing pr<strong>of</strong>essionalenvironment is one <strong>of</strong> the main reasons for increasingfrictions between management and the editorial staff. Thisin turn results in growing concerns over job security and growingpreparedness to compromise on journalistic standards andpr<strong>of</strong>essional ethics.Working under a set <strong>of</strong> rules, which do not curtail the publisher’sentrepreneurial rights and which at the same time <strong>of</strong>ferthe journalists better protection against unjust pressures would,therefore, be helpful in maintaining high quality standards evenduring periods <strong>of</strong> structural changes <strong>of</strong> the newspaper’s economicenvironment.84 THE IMPACT OF MEDIA CONCENTRATION ON PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISM