Members of the Board, the Press Complaints Commission and the Executive Office talked about the basics of self-regulation as the organizing principle of the media and journalists, as well as the establishment and first experiences of the Council in the past months. Citizens, representatives of civil society organizations and journalists from these four cities took part at the debates.
During the discussions dilemmas were cleared on whether and how self-regulation is needed and useful, the differences between self-regulation and regulation, differences between the Council of Honor at the Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the Council of Media Ethics, how self-regulation can lead to a reduction of judicial proceedings for defamation and insult or the manner in which the CMEM’s decisions can be used in court in such proceedings, the ways in which self-regulation leads to greater trust in the media and greater professionalism of the media and how it contributes to the protection of fundamental human rights and freedoms and strengthening the media as the fourth power.
At the debates, especially in Ohrid, specific cases of the Press Complaints Commission’s work were presented, in order to explain the work of this body in more details.
The attendants of the debate have expressed great interest in the work of the CMEM and self-regulation, asking a number of questions to the representatives of the Council who presented its work. Some of them emphasized that they did not know or knew little of the existence of CEMM, and that this body can help in the everyday work of the media. This was particularly emphasized by some representatives of civil society organizations.
The debates were implemented as part of the Project “Inform and be informed – increasing public awareness of CMEM”, an initiative that is supported by UNESCO. Such debates will continue in other regions of Macedonia, in order to better introduce the local public with the activities of the Council.
