Denmark – (E8) Level of self-regulation

All ten of the leading Danish news media organisations have their own ethical rules and guidelines, with most of them being published online. A study shows that there has been an increase in the development of internal guidelines and self-regulation from 2006 onwards (Blach-Ørsten et al., 2015). The internal guidelines supplement the guiding rules of sound press ethics and in some instances are more specific and far reaching, for instance, DR’s 94-page book of rules and guidelines (Danmarks Radio, 2019a). One editor-in-chief argued that the internal rules were stricter than the general rules. Three Danish news media houses – DR, TV 2, and the newspaper Politiken – also have an ombudsman to address media content and receive complaints from users. DR’s and TV 2’s ombudsmen are mandatory by law, whereas Politiken has set up an ombudsman by choice – and is so far the only private media with an ombudsman in Denmark.