The Ethical Journalism Network (EJN) has issued landmark statement and recommendations, formally adopted during the regional conference "The Trust Story: Pathways to Quality Journalism in South-East Europe and Türkiye in the Digital Age" held on 2-3 December 2024 at the Press Club Brussels Europe.
Over 40 representatives of media outlets and media organisations from the Western Balkans, Türkiye and the EU gathered to explore practical ways to restore public trust in both offline and digital media, joined by EU Institutions (DG NEAR, DG CNECT and the European Parliament), digital platforms and advertisement organisations.
In a world increasingly shaped by digital transformation, quality journalism and public trust face significant challenges. These include the collapse of business models supporting public interest journalism and persistent political interference. The EJN’s statement underscores the urgency of addressing these issues, calling for urgent action at all levels to restore public confidence in the social role of news media as the providers of accurate, reliable, and independent information, which is essential for democratic life.
The recommendations underline that the media organisations in the region — including small scale outlets — should “be further encouraged to support transparency, ethics and credible self-regulation through self-assessment and independent certification through widely recognised programmes, such as the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI).”
The need to establish the use of self-assessment and independent certification was also highlighted as a criterion for the transparent allocation by donors, public bodies and international organisations of public funding to news media engaged in public interest journalism. Advertisers and commercial sponsors are encouraged to back self-regulating media and incentivised to support outlets committed to these principles.
Additionally, digital platforms, technology companies, and social media platforms are urged to give preferential treatment through algorithmic prominence to media adopting self-regulation mechanisms like the JTI. Abusive suspensions or unjustified restrictions on such media content should also be avoided.
In conclusion, the statement acknowledges the potential benefits of AI in newsrooms, provided its use is guided by clear ethical standards, public transparency, comprehensive training, and human oversight. It also calls for addressing risks associated with AI to ensure its responsible application in journalism.
“The statement and the recommendations are a strong call to various stakeholders to support quality journalism in the region, recognising the importance of rewarding the media complying with ethical and professional standards”, said Joshua Massarenti, Regional Project Coordinator, UNESCO.
The regional conference in Brussels was organised within the EU-funded project Building Trust in Media in South East: Support to Journalism as a Public Good, implemented by UNESCO through the Antenna in Sarajevo of its Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe.
This article is a reproduction from the website of UNESCO
