Raphael Cohen-Almagor“The Work of the Press

Councils in Britain, Canada, and Israel:

Comparative Appraisal”

1953 - was founded the British Press Council.

Its aims were:

• To preserve the freedom of the press;

• To guarantee the responsibility and objectivity of mass media;

• To improve efficiency of a profession

The main functions of the Press Council were:

• To deal with complaints of the public against the press;

• To deal with complaints of the press against any other body for their conduct against the press;

• To institute own investigation into some aspects of press behavior

Some reforms were carried out:

• The name of Council is changed:

Press Complaints Commission

• The amount of its members is reduced

(16 mans – 9 editors and 6 members of the public coming + chairperson)

                                    

“Do you think the current system of self-regulation by the Press Complaints

Commission is working?"

yes

no

don'tknow

• 30% - the system was working

• 59 % - thought the system was not working

• 12 % - answered “Don't know”

“Would you be in favour or against the introduction of a law saving people the

right to privacy?"

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

yes

no

don'tknow

• 87 % were in favour• 10 % were opposed• 3 % answered

"Don't know"

Canada

• The first to be established were the press councils in Windsor in 1971

• in Alberta and Ontario in 1972.• In 1973 the Quebec Press Council was

formed.• This process continued well into the 1980s• Today we find provincial press councils in

all provinces except Saskatchewan.

"Because in the modern era there are increasing points of friction between the need for freedom of the press and the public interests, the press realized that they should take it upon themselves to bridge the gap between them".

Yitzhak Olshan

The Israel Press Council consists of:

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40• Press –30%

• Public representatives – 40 %

• Publishers and editors -30 %

Sixty members sit in the

plenary organ and ten in

the presidency organ

The basic concepts of the Code of ethics:

• Decency

• Fairness

• Truth

• Objectivity

• Privacy

Year No. complaints In Tribunal

1994 95 27

1995 94 19

1996 92 18

1997 148 17

1998 130 ?