Regulating the Press for Accuracy and Objectivity

Abstract

Abstract Accuracy is a cardinal norm of journalistic practice. However, developments around the phenomenon of ‘fake news’ in recent times have sparked off an intense debate about whether mainstream media can live up to the ideal of accuracy. News organizations, faced with shrinking budgets and a fierce competition for readers, are often presented with a stark choice between speed and accuracy. In an age of viral news, the temptation is there to publish first and verify later. In the face of overall low levels of trust in professional media, many newsrooms have invested in hubs which fact-check user-generated content. At the same time, their own news reports are scrutinized—and occasionally suppressed—by online platforms and by external fact-checking sites, situated on the cusp between ‘traditional journalism and digital network logics’. This chapter will, first, examine the way in which the ethics of journalism have been interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights. Next, it will focus on the journalistic standards of accuracy and objectivity/impartiality in a comparative context. Furthermore, it will discuss the recent phenomenon of ‘fake news’, and the concomitant rise in scepticism about the accuracy and objectivity of news media, and in particular the press. Finally, it will ask whether there has been a shift in the editorial standards adhered to by news media and in their role and self-perception as guarantors of accuracy. The influence of online platforms and of fact-checking sites will be explored in this context.