{"id":1655,"date":"2014-05-07T14:35:59","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T11:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/?p=1655"},"modified":"2014-05-07T14:35:59","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T11:35:59","slug":"portraits-of-media-lynch-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/portraits-of-media-lynch-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits of media lynch laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"images\"<\/a>Ilia Valkov, AEJ-Bulgaria<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>In times of elections the misuse of information becomes frequent, the compromises are growing rapidly and are equal to the numbers of the candidates as the role of the media becomes more important and responsible. In the beginning of the year the groove marked because of political and economical differences among the publishers is getting more profound with the advent of a new media union (Bulgarian media union) and the acceptance of an alternative journalist code. There are two camps of mutual rejection that formed.
\nOn one hand \u2013 united in the \u201cAlliance of the publishers\u201d remained \u201cSega\u201d, \u201cCapital\u201d and \u201cCapital Daily\u201d newspapers, the website \u201cDnevnik.bg\u201d\u2026, and on the other hand is the print coalition that gathered \u201cTelegraph\u201d, \u201cMonitor\u201d, \u201cPolitics\u201d, \u201cPresa\u201d (Press), \u201cTema\u201d (Theme) magazine, \u201cWeekend\u201d, the website \u201cBlitz\u201d, \u201cFocus\u201d agency, the party newspaper \u201cDuma\u201d (Word)\u2026The division in the media guild allowed the creation of an alternative ethical code that has no difference in its essence from the others but still paradoxically is used as a mean of distinguish.
\nAlternative to what?<\/strong>
\nFor the last couple of years Bulgarian media (with some exceptions among which are the publications of New Bulgarian Media Group) based their work on ethical code which was largely accepted by the journalist guild. This was one major document that was supposed to serve as a moral compass of triunity:
\n– right of access to information;<\/strong>
\n– protection of the personality and the civil rights;<\/strong>
\n– freedom of speech.<\/strong>
\nUnfortunately this code failed to unite the media guild nor did it create conditions for improvement of the media environment as a whole. It is respected by few and \u201cread\u201d by ethical commissions with a low effect of public yield.
\nThis however does not make senseless the work of the ethical bodies which are an important instrument of journalist self-control \u2013 one of the purest forms of assessment and observation of professional, civil and even universal interest and norms in an information environment. Self-control in media is a complex process of attaining the consensus among publishers, journalist and media experts \u2013 and every single participant should respect the universal interest.
\nSelf-adjusting \u2013 effective formula for self-control<\/strong>
\nSelf-control is an effective formula for opposing an outside interference and censorship; for regulation at an institutional level (which is the role of the Council for Electronic Media, the Law on the radio and the television, the Law on the obligatory deposit of print products…); for legislative initiatives in the field of media that are in the hands of the executive and the legislative powers.
\nThe only working commissions so far \u2013 for the press and the electronic media, towards the National Council for Journalistic Ethic of the \u201cAlliance of the publishers\u201d, remained with low public trust. The decisions and their positions on different cases are lacking wide public resonance. The optimistic view has to respect that at least they are working.
\nBulgarian Media Union is about to have ethical commissions in May?<\/strong>
\nOn the contrary, the newly formed \u201cBulgarian Media Union\u201d still does not have neither working executive bodies nor ethical commissions. Based on preliminary information these bodies of self-control had to be ready in February. In the end of April, the executive director \u2013 Grisha Kamburov, informed that \u201cprocedures are behind schedule because this process is a multiple bed\u201d. Publishers (media owners), journalists and experts (independent quota) are about to participate in the ethical commission and the one that is going to \u201cinterpret\u201d the professional-ethical code of Bulgarian media. According to Grisha Kamburov, the commissions are going to be operational in the middle of May. \u201cIf this does not happen, we are going to think it through\u201d, he said.
\nThis insecurity however creates greater danger of violation of the ethical norms in the height of the electoral campaign for the European parliament. If someone from the participants is \u201caffected\u201d by a random publication it is going to be hard to define to whom the complaint should be filed.
\nParallel ethical commissions \u2013 worsening of the trench war<\/strong>
\nIn general the work of two parallel ethical bodies for self-control can deepen the media war between the publishers where loser would not be only the general public. This creates a serious risk of bending the public debates between politics, business, court, civil society. Media ethical commissions continue to struggle for public reception \u2013 the first stage for accomplishing legitimacy among readers, listeners and even spectators. Legitimacy of the decisions and the recommendations and the judgements of the commissions in general depends highly on the trust in them. However it is still missing.
\nIt is a pity that in the past few years the borders between media, power, party head offices and corporative interest became so thin that are now almost invisible for the general public. In this sense it is logical that the trust in the media is interconnected with the trust in the state institutions, political elite, non-governmental organizations, sociological and PR agencies etc. It is interconnected system of publicity that is feeding simultaneously.\u00a0 It is hardly a coincidence that we are witnesses of not only demonstration against state institutions and corporate head offices but protests are also organized in front of editor\u2019s offices too.
\nThe struggle for the public trust<\/strong>
\nThe struggle for the public trust fills in with substance every journalist ethical code. Its meaning is not to divide to good and bad but rather to outline common professional rules, the search for a balance when covering a certain subject (different points of view); respect for basic human dignity (hate speech, problems of victims, torture); the possibility for everyone to be informed; the problem for the access to the media \u2013 minorities in isolation; information behind the curtains of power, state secret; the conflict of interests in journalism etc.
\nIt is said that media are the Fourth power that is meant to criticize and to balance the others (executive, legislative, judicial) to explain the ongoing processes, to guide the audience, to educate\u2026
\nDangerous unity \u2013 media, business, politics<\/strong>
\nThe mixture of media, business and politics is a great delusion and effective form of manipulation which is exercised by a vast part of the media. In that sense every single violation of the ethical code would be used as an exception and it would be presented as \u201ca danger for the society to remain uninformed about the abuses done by others\u201d. This increases the possibility of media becoming plotters in political and business interest.
\nThat is why the election of universally recognized bodies of self-control of all media is necessary. Furthermore professional journalist ethic has no alternative. The fragmenting would generate new opportunities for people to take the matters in their own hands and media would be more and more focused on themselves. In this situation the general public seems abandoned.<\/p>\n

The analysis is part of the project \u201cMediator\u201d funded by America for Bulgaria Foundation. The responsibility for the content of the whole project is held by The Association of European Journalists \u2013 Bulgaria. <\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In times of elections the misuse of information becomes frequent, the compromises are growing rapidly and are equal to the numbers of the candidates as the role of the media becomes more important and responsible. In the beginning of the year the groove marked because of political and economical differences among the publishers is getting more profound with the advent of a new media union (Bulgarian media union) and the acceptance of an alternative journalist code. There are two camps of mutual rejection that formed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[960],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-analyses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aej-bulgaria.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}