" The men who bit the (watch) dogs " - A Report on media ownership patterns in post-communist Romania – 5 profiles (original) (raw)
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This report presents results from a survey of a representative sample of Italian journalists. The original population has been composed from three sources: Ordine dei Giornalisti, Fieg and Inpgi. The sample has been identified balancing available data on media segment quota and professionals regional origin (reflecting also the gender and the journalists role quota). The Italian sample consists therefore of 123 respondents: 48 journalists who work for daily newspapers, 9 for weeklies, 14 for magazines, 3 in public radios, 4 in private radios, 10 in public television, 16 in private televisions, 10 in news agencies and 9 are online journalists. Answers reveal an high degree of homogeneity related to the ways journalists conceive journalism, MAI (traditional and innovative). Overall the sample indicates external factors as major problems in Italian Journalism. “Governmental pressure” and “Economic pressures” are considered the most influential. In general though Italian journalists assume a certain degree of openness to instruments of accountability and a moderate appreciation to a level of direct relation with the audience in terms of accountability, the external solutions (through judiciary system) is still much appreciated. If the “idealistic” support to accountability instruments is on average moderately high, in Italian journalistic dailies practices there are no accountability instruments with an impact on journalists’ behaviour. Neither the traditional instruments (“professional codes of ethics”, “journalism education”) nor the innovative ones (“user comments”, “in-house media blog” or “blogs about the media”). The ways expressed by the Italian journalists to voice the criticism reinforce the impression that Italian journalists prefer informal relationships among colleagues than traditional instruments.
Four Shades of Censorship - State Intervention in the Central Eastern European Media Markets
Mertek Media Monitor, 2021
This paper presents the results of the project "Good practice sharing for a more open and transparent media across developing democracies in CEE". The project, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, aims to provide a comprehensive picture of media policy processes in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, based on up-to-date data. The project was led by Mertek Media Monitor (HU), and involved MediaForum (CZ), ActiveWatch (RO) and Memo98 (SK). The research pays special attention to the specificities of the media market and the situation of journalism, and analyses the legal environment not only on the basis of legislation but also on the basis of the practice of law enforcement. In contrast to other media policy analyses, the most important specificity of the research is that it focuses on the collection and processing of primary data instead of the secondary processing of expert interviews and literature sources. With its broad methodological background, it provides an evidence-based report that is a relevant starting point for media policy decisions by industry, government and the European Union.
Supporting the media State measures around the world
The first step toward the production of this report was taken in November 2016, when one of our association members in Latin America wrote to WAN-IFRA with an urgent request. That country's authorities were discussing a controversial tax reform that would, if approved, seriously impact the newspaper industry. Our colleagues needed to find out urgently what was happening around the world in matters of newspaper industry taxation, particularly VAT, in order to use compelling examples in their lobbying activities. We soon discovered that material on the topic was very difficult to find, and that even in Europe, an overview on VAT rates applied to newspapers did not exist. Reduced VAT rates are a common way for governments to provide support to the press, but early on in our research, we decided to expand to also investigate other forms of support, direct and indirect, that were granted to the press in the different countries. All the potential sources we talked to showed great excitement at the idea of a global outlook into state measures aiming to provide financial support to the news media. Thanks to a lucky turn of events at the end of 2016, WAN-IFRA's Media Policy department had the unusual availability of a little funding, which we invested in securing the collaboration of Ilaria, a great legal researcher. We started with a small investigation using internal resources, then moved to interlocutory e-mails and finally put together a proper survey, which you can find in appendix at the end of this report. Teemu and I threw all the power of our contacts into the project, from member-association directors, to World Press Trends contributors, to academics, lawyers and even just industry friends around the world. The result of this teamwork is now in your hands. Far from covering the globe, this report indeed represents a comprehensive effort at an outlook on the different ways the news media is supported by the public sector the world over. We hope this report will enable our members to compare their local situations with the global trends on this increasingly topical issue, and to fine-tune their lobbying at national level.
Media Pluralism Monitor 2016 - Romania
The Media Pluralism Monitor (MPM) is a research tool that was designed to identify potential risks to media pluralism in the Member States of the European Union. This narrative report has been produced within the framework of the first pan-European implementation of the MPM. The implementation was conducted in 28 EU Member States, Montenegro and Turkey with the support of a grant awarded by the European Union to the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF) at the European University Institute. See the full reports here: http://cmpf.eui.eu/media-pluralism-monitor/mpm-2016-results/
Our paper focuses on the issue of security and independence of modern day mass media. The majority of mass media is owned by large corporations and business companies and there has been noted a certain pressure on the quality and the content of media coverage that is happening with a varying degree of success in various countries. Our paper is based on the results of the Czech branch of the Worlds of Journalism Study project that took place between 2012 and 2014 and consisted of 291 interviews with journalists from all types of media, both at the regional level and nationwide. The results addressed changes in the way Czech journalists perceive their roles and ethical responsibilities and showed the altering manner in which these changes are reflected in emerging media projects. It appears that Czech journalists are now keener to accept the role of public “watchdogs” and the newly found role of journalism becomes a catchy marketing idea for the new projects.