Defining Freedom of the Press: A Cross national examination of press ethics and regulation in ten European countries

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Inquiries into the ethics of the UK press, prompted by a series of scandals associated with newspapers, have hitherto been far too parochial: too focussed on the UK itself, they have missed opportunities to learn from parallel developments and concerns overseas. This project, in contrast will develop knowledge and understanding of how press councils in comparable jurisdictions from around Europe approach the difficult questions in media ethics of balancing freedom and responsibility. Significantly, it will also examine news work itself and explore the extent to which ethical codes impact on the daily working practices of journalists, news workers and those directly affected by the activities of the press. The isolationism that has characterised the debates about press ethics has hitherto hindered the possibility of benchmarking and learning from other societies in which problems of ethics and regulation have been addressed by legislators, journalists and the general public. By examining the top European nations in the World Press Freedom rankings, this project will develop a set of evidence based recommendations to the UK regulator (IMPRESS) that can be used to provide a benchmark for the UK press code of ethics. This project will directly help IMPRESS and other organisations review and update future iterations of their codes and related guidance. It will help establish norms of journalism ethics in these areas. Moreover, by examining how the press councils in these countries intersect with the law (e.g., do they have statutory status or recognition; are their judgments recognised by the courts; how do their codes overlap with the law?), we will gain a much richer understanding of how press regulation operates in practice, rather than in theory. This would then offer the possibility of learning from best practice as to what can work and what can be viable in addressing issues around press self-regulation. By holding them accountable to more comprehensive standards, this research will allow regulators to support publishers in achieving a new status and profile, which will allow them to both pursue the classical liberal rationale for journalism as 'watchdog' or 'fourth estate' - and challenge the hegemony of the corporate press. This could have far-reaching social impact given the technological and societal changes that that the news landscape faces not only in producing viable and sustainable codes of conduct but also helping to strengthen this new sector of the news media and protect groups that have hitherto been subject to press abuses.