Comisión de Arbitraje, Quejas y Detontología del Periodismo, Journalistism Arbitration and Ethics Committee
Rafael de Mendizábal Allende (President)
Centro Internacional de Prensa
C/ María de Molina, 50 - 2ª Planta
28006 Madrid
Email: info@comisiondequejas.com
Web: http://www.comisiondequejas.com/
The Committee started in November 1993, after adopting the FAPE Code of Ethics.
The aim is to promote ethical journalism from independent and responsible self-regulation, through mediation and understanding. This is an arbitral body between the profession and citizens who feel affected by certain information. No sanctioning power, moral authority is granted by professional organizations and journalists attached to it and is a complementary alternative to legal regulation. Action by the Commission ensures compliance with the Ethics Code of the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE).
The Foundation of the Arbitration Commission, Complaints and Ethics of Journalism, with the participation of all individuals, companies and entities committed to its objectives, facilitates the operation and performance of this Commission to develop from the strictest autonomy and independence.
The Commission is composed of personalities from journalism, law, academia and other relevant activities of social life. The Commission is part of the Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe.
Fundació Consell de la Informació de Catalunya, Information Council of Catalunya
Roger Jiménez (President)
Rbla. Catalonia, 10, pral.
08007 Barcelona
Tel: +34933171920
Email: cic@periodistes.org
Web:http://fcic.periodistes.org/
The Information Council of Catalonia (CIC) is a non-profit organization formed by the manifestation of the will of the College of Journalists of Catalonia (CPC) in 1997. It aims to ensure compliance with the principles of journalistic ethics contained in the Code of ethics, which was approved by the Governing Board of the CPC and the II Congress of Journalists in 1992.
The CIC obtained legal personality in 1999 becoming the Foundation Information Council of Catalonia (FCIC), with the aim of being a private and independent arbitration body. As such, it will serve on media professionals and develop their information activities in the territory of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia.
It is, therefore, a representative body that plural and, apart from the powers of courts, ensures compliance with the principles and criteria of the Code of Ethics of the journalistic profession in Catalonia. Being an instrument of self-regulation of the profession, its recommendations are moral character.
Updated: 2108/2017
Consell de la informacio de Catalunya, Information Council of Cataluna
Regional Council
Mr Josep Pernau (Chair); Josep Maria Cadena (Secretary general)
10 Rambla de Catalunya - 4rt 4a
Barcelona 08007
Catalunya
Spain
Tel: 34 93 317 19 20 (ext. 246/228)
Fax: 34 93 317 8386
Email: cic@periodistes.org
Web: www.periodistes.org/fcic/home.php
The Information Council of Catalonia is a decision-making and arbitration body; it is private, independent, representative and plural. It oversees compliance with the principles and criteria of the Ethical Code of the journalistic profession.
The Council was formed as a private foundation in accordance with Law 1/82 of 3rd March of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia. ??The Ethical Code [present in the list of codes on this website] expresses the will to defend free and responsible means of communication in the framework of a plural, democratic society. It is a declaration of principles which aims to stimulate constant self-critical reflection of the ethical values that should prevail in the exercise of the journalistic profession. It was adopted at the 2nd Congress of Catalan Journalists, held in October 1992.
The background for this desire for self-regulation is to be found in the UK. As defined by the Press Complaints Commission, "unlike legislative restrictions, self-regulation is quickly and immediately accessible, it operates quickly and flexibly, it is independent of the government and the courts, and makes no charge to the taxpayer or the person who makes the complaint".
The Code foresaw the need to set up a representative body, plural and independent of the public authorities, which would exercise a moral authority and oversee compliance with and observance of the twelve points set out in the document.
The College of Journalists, the driving force behind the Code, took the decision to set up a body to accomplish this mission. A long process started that ended with the creation of the Information Council of Catalonia in December 1996. This was made up of a committee of women and men whose mission was to judge transgressions of journalistic ethics. The very variety of its members guaranteed its independence.
The first thought was that the council's composition should be representative of society with lawyers, university lecturers and representatives of civic associations, with perhaps a single journalist in the Chair. However, the media found that it would not work well if it did not also have the experience of a profession that was creating the self-control mechanism. ??After two years of operation and with the aim of providing the Council with its own juridical identity, the College of Journalists decided to propose the creation of a private foundation.
The purpose of the Information Council of Catalonia Foundation (registered in September 1999) is to oversee compliance with the principles of the journalistic professional ethics.
The governing body of the Foundation is a board of trustees made up of members of the College of Journalists, of the media of social communication, universities, civic bodies and professional colleges. The board elects a chair and a general secretary who are also the chair and general secretary of the Council.
The Information Council was fortunate to have, from the beginning, the support of media firms and of professionals. The protocol they signed was the starting point of this body. It has dealt with complaints from all kinds of institutions and private individuals, like the Basque Government, the Catalan Women's Institute, the General Directorate for Children's Services and Caritas. The complaints referred not only to the press but also to broadcasting. And the geographic range has been extended to the whole of Catalonia.
Sometimes the councillors have found it appropriate to specify, clarify or amplify some point of the Code. Thus it has appeared that one of the most important and beneficial functions of the Council may be the updating and amplification of the Code. ??After a first two-year stage of consolidation of the Council, the new directors of the Foundation proposed to introduce mediation formulas into bilateral conflicts, and to strengthen the relationship with the universities by the integration of scientific research into decision taking. The purpose is to be able to take the initiative and react fast, without a specific complaint having been made, in particularly serious cases, and also to require the co-operation of university researchers to analyse the most relevant and generalisable cases.
El Consejo Deontológico de la Federación de Asociaciones de la Prensa de España (FAPE), The Board of Ethics of the Federation of Press Associations of Spain
Mr Fernando Lopez Urbaneja (Chair); NA (Secretary General)
Federacion de Asociaciones de la Prensa de España (FAPE)
Juan Bravo 6 - Planta 3a
Madrid 28006
Spain
Tel: 91 585 00 38 / 39
Fax: 91 585 00 35
Email: fape@fape.es
Web: http://www.fape.es/
Last Update - Aug 2017
