According to the Belgian Constitution and media decree, every Flemish citizen can request information from committees or boards under the jurisdiction of the Flemish Government. However, Flemish journalists rarely make use of this feature, due to impracticalities and lack of usefulness of acquired information.
A lot of Flemish journalists worry about job security, even though professional journalists are protected by law. Due to financial pressure, journalists are more and more forced to work as freelancers, lacking protection measures. Older journalists fear being fired because of their higher wages.
The majority of Flemish journalists acquired a degree of higher education. However, less time and resources for professional journalism are available. This contributes to a general decline in overall job satisfaction.
Data on leading news media is easily accessible online, with the only difficulty sometimes being unravelling the complex power structures and revenue streams.
Flemish media organisations enjoy editorial independence, as set out in the Belgian Constitution and the media decree. Journalists declare being satisfied with the level of autonomy of their redaction. Nevertheless, politicians trying to influence the press is common practice.
Different independent supervisors scrutinise the Flemish (news) media, each of them monitoring a different field in journalism. Most of these “controllers of the controllers” publish their findings and elaborate reports on platforms freely accessible to the public. Self-regulation is also common on the level of media organisations and their brands, with a few media organisations even installing an independent ombudsperson.
For a long time, leading daily media were financially successful. For some time now, there has generally been less staff available for traditional reporting, but with the creation of research desks, there are now slightly more resources available for research and investigative journalism.
Supply of professional training offerings in journalism is not a problem in Switzerland, but there are no specified or even obligatory strategies and concepts in most media and editorial offices. As a consequence, professional training is a discretionary matter and its attendant demand seems to be quite moderate.
The mission statements or editorial statutes of the media contain hardly any reference to the role of the media as democratic “watchdogs” in the interests of civil society and are of little importance in the everyday work of media professionals.
Journalists in Switzerland generally have free access to most public information held by government and administration, but not to companies and associations. There are still restrictions and obstacles.
The Media for Democracy Monitor (MDM) is a research project from The Euromedia Research Group. This is a network of researchers that collects and exchanges information that help to describe and analyse developments in media structure and policy in Europe.
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