Alzey Topic: The Media

Germany: Press codex

ERASMUS + ALZEY        19/01/2016 – 23/01/2016                     

 

Germany:   The German Press Codex

The Press codex is kind of a rule that all journalists have to keep. The Presserat has to control that the journalists are keeping the rules from the Press codex.  The Presserat exists since 1973 and it sets up some points for the journalistic work. Those rules are describing moral principles. Whether a journalist for newspaper, radio, TV or websites, everyone has to follow the Press codex.

When the Press codex is broken the Presserat blames the media and tells them to make a better job in the future.

The Pressecodex is made of all in all 16 points. The most important thing is that the journalists report truthfully and without offending anyones dignity. This is why journalists have to make their research very carefully. Rumours can’t be written as facts.

Everyone has the right to stay anonym in the press, exept for example politicians or actors or other famous people. To protect children there shouldn’t be pictures of violence. A journalist should be impartial as well.

Every journalist should follow the Press codex.

Discussion with Mr. Ladwig

 

 

 

During our erasmus trip we have amongst others visited the SWR. There we have attended a discussion with Mr. Ladwig, a very famous journalist of Germany. We have discussed the issue of "Lügenpresse", which means that the press is full of lies, and the problem of "immedeatism", which means that online journals always have to post the most up-to-date information immediately. The difficulty with that ist that journalists oftentimes have two or more sources which all sound valid and they have to decide which one is the most reliable, but under time pressure they are often not able to investigate long enough so that they can't be 100% sure if it is true or not.

The term "Lügenpresse" is wide-spread in Germany. It is kind of a consequence of "immediatism". If journalists have to guess which source is the most valid one, it appears that the information of newspapers is not always true. This problem is also caused by the demand of the population because they always call for actuality.

To conclude, all journalists should be free in their way of reporting. An unbiased media is crucial for democracy.

 Markus Gattermeyer

 

 

Summary of the discussions at the Südwestdeutschen Rundfunk

To my mind, the most important finding of the debate is that the economy and governments indeed try to influence journalists and the media in general. To exemplify how companies try to bias a reporter´s opinion, Mr. Ladwig told us about how a multinational agriculture corporation against whom he made a report wanted to invite him to a stay at a luxury hotel where they would proof that the allegations against them were wrong. He also added that this was not the only offer of its kind.

He stated that it is the duty of every journalist to report as unbiasedly as possible which also means that you have to use information from reliable sources. It is often difficult for a reporter to check the reliability of these sources due to a lack of time. With the growth in popularity of modern media, such as the internet, a culture of so called “immediatism” developed, which means that the news have to appear online immediately after they happened. Because of the high competition in the media sector journalists often have to decide which source of information they use. If different sources suggest contradictory information, the reporter has to speculate which description is more likely to be true. This development was crucial to the introduction of the German term “Lügenpresse”, which means a press full of lies, owing to the fact that these speculations are sometimes not right, which leads to the media reporting wrong information about a certain event.

Sometimes information is withheld in order not to cause panic, e.g. the sexual harassment of hundreds of women was not mentioned in the report about new year´s eve of the Cologne police, but such practices only promote the distrust in the media.

 

To conclude, journalists must report unbiasedly and they should only use genuine information in order not to misinform the public. Furthermore, the people must be informed about all ongoing events, even if they are unsettling, to proof that the accusation that the media is trying to manipulate the consumers by spreading lies is wrong.

By Karl Reininger    

The resolution of our work

At our trip to Germany we recieved a lot of input related to the topic media. We saw the very first beginning of the press at the Gutenberg-Museum, where we weretold how books were printed in former times. In order to see how media works today, we visited the SWR. Furthermore, we had the possibility to talk about the freedom of the press and media with the german journalist Mr. Ladwig at the Second German Television. Then, we could elaborate on this topic in the European Youth Parliament. Discussing about the right use of media, the reliability of the press and media and laws regulating this issues, our group came to a variety of solutions.

The current situation

Firstly we had to analyse the current situation, and we recognized that there are some problems related to press and media. It should be noted, that every EU-member state has a constitution that includes the right of free speech, however, it is not necessarily complied. Another aspect is extremism and crime on the internet are becoming a major topic due to the anonymity. What has to be mentioned concerning press is, that it is not completely independent and free, but it depends on the readers, the ones who finance the paper, and politicians. Readers may have problems to differentiate between biased and unbiased papers, or they are not critical enough when it comes to unknown sources. Furthermore, it can be noticed, that traditional media becomes more and more digital to reach a larger audience, and digital media offers users the possibility to discuss controversial topics immediately.

Our resolutions

We came to the solution that newspapers should always publish two or more articles on one topic, what makes it easier for the readers to see an issue from another point of view and to build their own opinion. Another big concern is to prohibit political advertisement in newspapers as they are not adequate for a professional paper. Instead, politicians should have their own platforms to spread their opinion, and, in addition, special editions from newspapers concerning politics should be published before elections. In order to ensure free press in all EU-member states, we call for strict financial sanctions for those states, who do not respect their constitution. In order to differentiate better between reliable and unreliable sources, a EU institution should be established that rates and controls sources of research. As young people are the future, a fund for further trainings for teachers  should be found, which deals with the topic media. A cooperation between universities, ministries and schools would make sense.

The most important result of our work is the need for a further school subject in primary and secondary schools. It should:

·         sensitive the students for risks as well as advantages of media

·         teaching them to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources (especially on social media)

·         making them aware of rights and responsibilities while using digital media

·         habituate children to inform themselves about actual happenings and politics

      Judith Stingl

 

Ju