The Online Media Self-Regulation Guidebook The Representative on Freedom of the Media The Online Media Self-Regulation Guidebook / Ed. by A. Hulin and M. Stone; Vienna: OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, 2013 – 110 p. Written in a question-and-answer format, this book is a continuation of “The Media Self-Regulation Guidebook,” published by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media in 2008. The authors explore the best practices and mechanisms of self- regulation of Internet media in the OSCE region and consider the latest issues in journalism, self-regulation and ethics. For journalists, consultants, regulatory officials and undergraduate and graduate students. The views expressed by the contributing authors in this publication are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Design: red hot ‘n’ cool Editors: Adeline Hulin and Mike Stone © 2013 The Representative on Freedom of the Media Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe 6 Wallnerstrasse A-1010 Vienna Austria Phone: +43-1-51436-6800 Fax: +43-1-51436-6802 e-mail: [email protected] ISBN: 978-92-9234-647-8 The Online Media Self-Regulation Guidebook The Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Vienna 2013 The Representative on Freedom of the Media Table of Contents Foreword 5 By Dunja Mijatović Chapter 1: The Internet and the New Media landscape 8 By Christian Möller and Andrei Richter 1/ Media convergence 11 2/ New forms of journalism 19 3/ Legal questions and implications 25 Chapter 2: Self-regulation of content by the online industry 44 By Joe McNamee Chapter 3: Ethics and digital journalism 60 By Aidan White Chapter 4: Media self-regulation mechanisms 74 in the online world By Adeline Hulin and Jeffrey Dvorkin 1/ The merits of media self-regulation in the digital era 77 2/ News Ombudsmen in the digital era 85 3/ Press councils adapting to the digital era 89 About the authors 106 Useful sources online 109 3 4 Foreword Dunja Mijatović1 Dear Readers, This Guidebook tackles the issue of media self-regulation in the digital world. It is an effort to show the need for ethical standards in the Internet era and illustrate with specific examples how self-regulation mechanisms can protect media freedom in the digital age. We live in a time in which everyone can take part in “the dialogue,” more than ever before. Media freedom and freedom of speech today means giving everyone, not just the few people who own or control traditional tools of mass communication, the chance to talk and share information. Everyone with a computer and an Internet connection can publish worldwide. The digitalization process has greatly increased the amount of information available and makes government control of that data more complicated, if possible at all. The widespread availability of content deemed harmful has inspired concern as there is no common understanding of the rules that should internationally govern the Internet. Hence self-regulation appears to be a solution to increase online accountability while offering more flexibility than state regulation. And it is the only mechanism recognized a free-speech friendly. Digitalization not only has changed the way people communicate, it has transformed profoundly and irreversibly the nature of journalism and ethics. While new media encourages people to speak their minds, democracy still demands independent journalists working to provide reliable and impartial news and analysis. A crucial task of self-regulatory mechanisms is to foster public trust in the media. Media self-regulation cannot succeed in a repressive environment. However, where media freedom is guaranteed, self-regulation can help preserve the independence of media and protect it from government interference. 1 Mijatović is Representative on Freedom of the Media for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 5 FOREWORD My Office wants to support those who are engaged in journalism – online or off – who wish to unite in their professionalism and be accountable to the public. This publication is an attempt to answer the most frequent questions about self-regulation that arise in new media. Who should follow journalism ethical standards in the digital era? Have journalism codes of ethics been adapted to the online environment? What kind of challenges does convergence bring to media self-regulation? What is the impact of the digitalization process on press councils? The Guidebook does not focus on specific countries but rather on a wide range of issues, each highlighted in different chapters. It explains how the Internet dramatically empowers civil society to keep the media responsible by producing innovative forms of media accountability and how the Internet is transforming the institutionalized forms of media self-regulation that were specifically created for traditional media. Written in a question-and-answer style, this publication follows-up on the successful Media Self-Regulation Guidebook, published in 2008. It is my hope that this new volume will have a similar resonance and will help readers to find solutions to their current concerns. I would like to thank all of the experts who have written for this Guidebook for their impressive contributions. 6 Chapter 1: The Internet and the New Media landscape 8 Introduction The Internet has a complex infrastructure and technology which enables users to access and exchange information globally. Today approximately 2.3 billion people worldwide are connected and are given new opportunities to access and share information, offering the promise of a truly democratic society taking shape of a joined global public community. The tremendous success of social networks during the past 10 years is, indeed, a significant illustration of this new environment. The Internet has substantially changed the way people consume media and has transformed the traditional partition of tasks among types of media. While media “convergence” has diluted long-established boundaries between print and audiovisual media, it also created new opportunities for media pluralism because there is no scarcity of frequencies and other resources in the online world. The widespread availability of harmful and illegal content on the Internet has stirred up concerns among governments and civil society representatives. Even if the benefits from the free flow of information outweigh the dangers of misusing the Internet, the responsibility for illegal and harmful content found there remains a major issue, especially because the Internet permits anonymity. In this context, the question should not be on whether governments should regulate the Internet but rather, on what and to what extent should content be regulated; and to what effect? With new technologies radically reshaping the media landscape, traditional regulatory assumptions have been called into question and, in many cases, existing rules have become counterproductive. Has governmental regulation proved to be efficient and, if not, are there alternative free speech-friendly methods that could be more efficient? 9 THE INTERNET AND THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE 1/ Media convergence By Christian Möller What is the Internet? The Internet as a “network of networks” enables users to access and exchange information globally, wherever they are. Little more than a computer or a smartphone and a connection to the network – be it dial-up, DSL, cable or WiFi – is needed to access the Web. The Internet has existed for more than 40 years and the World Wide Web (WWW) for nearly 20 years. Notwithstanding it is still considered “new media” and not all answers on how to regulate the Internet have been found. The complex nature of the Internet means there is regulation on at least three different levels or layers: first, the technical layer of cables and switches, second the protocol layer of IP addresses and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and, third, on the content level. The Internet explained • The Internet is a network of networks which connects millions of computers globally. • The information that travels over the Internet does so via a variety of languages known as protocols. • The World Wide Web is a way of accessing and sharing information through HTTP protocol. It also utilizes browsers to access Web documents containing graphics, sounds, texts and videos. How does the Internet work? To briefly explain the underlying infrastructure and technology: it mainly consists of cables, switches, DNS servers, backbones, routers and a number of technical devices that belong to private companies, telecoms, universities and government networks. This hardware forms the physical body of the Internet. The dramatic increase in Internet traffic over the past decades has made the Internet become the network of networks it is today. Institutions like the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) deal with the technical functioning of the Domain Name System (DNS) establishing new standards in so-called Requests for Comments (RfC) – and apparently did a pretty good job so far in providing 11 THE INTERNET AND THE NEW MEDIA LANDSCAPE more than 2.26 billion people worldwide with Internet access.1 ‘Rough consensus, running code’ was one of the principles used to keep the Internet up and running by defining lowest common denominators for technical standards and interfaces. ICANN To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination, we wouldn’t have one global Internet. In more technical terms, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) coordinates the Domain Name System (DNS), Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code Top- Level Domain (ccTLD) name system management and root server system management functions. These services were originally performed under a U.S.