Looking at self-regulation at the level of the main news media to provide fair, balanced and impartial reporting and to fulfil the journalistic mission, we can see attempts on different levels. Firstly and for the sake of prevention, candidates are to be informed adequately about their rights and duties. The question of whether they will accept the ethical principles may determine whether someone gets the job. Secondly and after being hired, training programmes help ensure that journalists will comply with formalities. Training on a regular basis will guarantee that journalists are steadily confronted with their own work and their own performance. The public broadcaster SRG SSR is still very keen on continuing education, while other media have cut down on offering continued training. Thirdly, internal policy guidelines and codes of conduct are other instruments of self-regulation. Each of the main news media has an Editorial Statute, which contains a Mission Statement and elements of a Code of Conduct. However, apart from the public broadcaster, such statements seem not to matter a great deal. They are neither institutionalized nor an effective instrument of self-regulation. In our interviews, the editors-in-chief pointed to the fact that internal guidelines and codes of conduct are important, but often hard to implement in everyday practice. new employees need to read the papers, but often there is a friction between the principles and the journalistic work. Especially tabloids often work on the outer limits of “moral legality”. The editors-in-chief count on the “common sense” of their journalists. Thus, editorial statutes and other internal newsroom rules exist, but are rarely used in daily practice.
Fourthly, many of our interviewees referred to the importance of the regular newsroom-meetings open for all journalists. However, besides this form of internal criticism, there are no formalized sanctions against journalists who violate ethical standards. We can say that most of the main Swiss news media do not have an effective system of self-regulation, which is implemented by formal rules. Self-criticism results rather from bilateral and informal forms of feedback. It depends strongly on the culture and tradition prevailing in each single newsroom.
Fifthly, there is an independent body (ombudsperson) for the employees as well as one for the audience. An ombudsperson, who oversees the operation of self-regulation and adjudicates between a media outlet/journalist and the subject of a report, does exist in most commercial news media. The public broadcaster is supervised by an ombudsperson – not least because of its specific legal requirement. If the resolution of the complaint is not satisfactory, an appeal can be lodged with the Independent Radio and Television Appeals Body (UBI). Further appeals to UBI decisions can be lodged with the Federal Supreme Court. Depending on the circumstances, individuals who feel personally affected and harmed by something that has appeared in the media have the right to complain, for example to the Swiss Press Council.
