PRINT  |  EESTI KEELES

Online news portals to be subject to Press Council

Jan 30, 2003. Estonia's new voluntary self-regulatory Press Council (Pressinõukogu) decided at the end of December 2002 to agree to a request from internet news portals to handle complaints regarding the journalistic content of these sites. 

As newspaper web sites are already within the bounds of the Press Council, it was considered a logical next step to start accepting complaints from the public also about news portals which are not linked to a traditional newspaper.

So far, no complaint about an on-line item has been lodged with the Press Council.

Three internet service providers, which operate news portals, informed the Press Council that they recognize the Press Council as the self-regulatory body to handle complaints from the public. They also said they recognize the Estonian code of press ethics.

The news portals and newspaper online editions already have self-regulation in place on the level of their own operation: notice and take down.

The Press Council was set up by the Estonian Newspaper Association in August 2002 as a non-statutory body of press self-regulation to handle complaints from the public about the printed press. The Press Council replaces a previous self-regulatory body, Avaliku Sõna Nõukogu, which was hit by a crisis after its chairman Urmas Loit was given a vote of no confidence by the newspaper industry over his failure to tackle conflicts of interest and ethics.    

 





Estonian Newspaper Association

Pärnu mnt 67A
10134 Tallinn Estonia
Tel. +372 646 1005
Fax. +372 631 1210
eall@eall.ee



Back  -  Mainpage