Photo credits: Consoris Lawyers
The Institute of Mass Information and the Detektor Media NGOs are to launch new tool with the purpose to make complaint about unprofessional journalistic reports which violate the law or professional standards.
At the web-sites of the both NGOs you could find
the form to file the public complaint. Every user can complain, but anonymous complaints won’t be considered.
The person who is going to make a complaint should fill
the form, to indicate his full name , e-mail address, link to the story he complains of that had been made public at the web-sites of the online edition, the newspapers, the television channels, the radio stations, or hyperlink to digitally remastered material of the newspaper, audio or video of standard quality. The person has to inform as well what is the violation he complains about.
The complaints against the mass media in Ukraine are to be examined, or that the main content is to cover Ukraine. The experts are going to consider whether the story has some breaches to the legislation, or to basic professional standards or to journalistic ethics.
The NGOs are to prepare its conclusions. It could result in an appeal to the author to correct the inexactness, or a publication relating about this issue with a comment from that person against whom the complaint was filed, or referring of this case to the Independent media council and the Commission of journalistic ethics.
“Mechanism of the public complaint of journalistic standards being violated has to be grounds for professional dialogue and strengthening of public credits to mass media. Any positive criticism is highly important for evolution and improvement of mass media. If an mass media is quite literally willing to evaluate and to improve itself, it will acknowledge its errors and is to esteem its regular readers, they will react to the criticism. Not every time the breach to journalistic standards is intentional one, sometimes this is occurs due to lack of time, of attention and hurry”, director and editor in chief of Detektor Media, Nataliya Lihachova told.
“There is always a human component, and an editor can take no notice of a mistake that a journalist made. If an attentive reader is to point at and the mass media is to react properly, this will improve the dialogue between the mass media and its audience, this will multiply the credits to the media outlet, because it will be clear that mass media work for the sake of its readers, audience and is willing to react to their demands”, Oksana Romanyuk, executive director of Institute of Mass Information told.
In case if the complaint is to be examined, the person who lodged this complaint, will be informed of within the period of 10 working days (the letter to be sent to his e-mail). At the same time, the journalist and his mass media are to receive the essential elements of this complaint and the conclusions of the expert.
The methodology is to be read
here.
