M E D I A W A T C H    S E R I E S
 
Marko Zajc, Janez Polajnar
Ours and Yours
 
Tanja Petrović
A long way home
 
Brankica Petković, Marko Prpič, Neva Nahtigal, Sandra Bašić-Hrvatin
Media Preferences and Perceptions
 
Mitja Velikonja
Titostalgia
 
Sandra Bašić-Hrvatin, Brankica Petković
You call this a media market?
 
Brankica Petković, Sandra Bašić-Hrvatin, Lenart J. Kučić, Iztok Jurančič, Marko Prpič, Roman Kuhar
Media for Citizens
 
Mitja Velikonja
EUrosis
 
Jernej Rovšek
The Private and the Public in the Media
 
Sandra Bašić-Hrvatin, Lenart J. Kučić, Brankica Petković
Media Ownership
 
Roman Kuhar
Media Representations of Homosexuality
 
Dragan Petrovec
Violence in the Media
 
Majda Hrženjak, Ksenija H. Vidmar, Zalka Drglin, Valerija Vendramin, Jerca Legan
Making Her Up
 
Gojko Bervar
Freedom of Non-accountability
 
Sandra Bašić-Hrvatin
Serving the State or the Public
 
Sandra Bašić-Hrvatin, Marko Milosavljević
Media Policy in Slovenia in the 1990s
 
Breda Luthar, Tonči Kuzmanić, Srečo Dragoš, Mitja Velikonja, Sandra Bašić-Hrvatin, Lenart J. Kučić
The Victory of the Imaginary Left
 
Matevž Krivic, Simona Zatler
Freedom of the Press and Personal Rights
 
Karmen Erjavec, Sandra Bašić-Hrvatin, Barbara Kelbl
We About the Roma
 
Tonči Kuzmanić
Hate-speech in Slovenia
 
Darren Purcell
The Slovenian State on the Internet
 
Breda Luthar
The Politics of Tele-tabloids
 
Marjeta Doupona Horvat, Jef Verschueren, Igor Ž. Žagar
The Pragmatics of Legitimation
 

Gojko Bervar
Freedom of Non-accountability

eBook (478kB, pdf)

This study does not aim to be either a manual or a textbook on self-regulation. It was prompted by prejudices arising primarily from the lack of knowledge about self-regulation in the media which is a practice widely spread across the world as well as in Slovenia.

In this study the author presents self-regulation as a part of a wider subject, that is, freedom of speech, arguing that self-regulation does not intrude on this freedom beyond the limits set by democracy, and that, compared to legislative solution, it is a much more friendly way of implementing the principle that one person’s freedom is limited by another person’s freedom. What is important is that the media are aware of the power they enjoy. The author gives several examples that illustrate where abuse of that unruly power can lead and argues that it is much better if media themselves hold it at bay and thus avert state’s interference with an intention of compelling them to do so.

The book recapitulates various views on media accountability and mechanisms reinforcing it, already widely discussed in public. It also looks into the current state of affairs in Slovenia despite the risk that time and further developments in this field may soon cancel out present conclusions. The frame of debate on the establishment of a press council in Slovenia could serve as a useful example for others. The existing Ethics Commission in Slovenia, whose past performance could have paved the way for an elaborate form of self-regulation, unfortunately proved to be an obstacle. The idea about a tripartite press council arose in some a feeling that a press council would be set against the ethics commission itself, even though, to the contrary, it could primarily advance the present work of this commission. The study therefore does not argue that existing ethics commission is needless, but rather points to the ideas about co-regulation that have recently emerged in the EU. They could lead to the shifting of the center, meaning that voluntary self-regulation, which advances media accountability and through it also professional conduct, could be taken away from the media and placed in the hands of users. The protection of professional standards would thus be transformed into the protection of consumer rights.