Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy Generator

Denmark – (E10) Rules and practices on internal pluralism

Score in short:

The internal pluralism in Denmark is based more on practices than rules and most often discussed in relation to professional journalistic values.

Score in detail:

Danish newspapers are not partial or political in nature. Most adhere to either a centre-right or centre-left universe in their editorial pages but strive to achieve a certain amount of pluralism in the opinion pages, while – in their self-understanding – working with professional values of impartiality in the news content.

Newsrooms will have daily discussions on the sources and opinions presented in the media, but the discussions are usually based on professional values (such as news selection criteria or the self-understanding of the newspaper) rather than based on explicit values of internal pluralism. Interviewees, however, stated that they experienced increasing awareness regarding questions of internal pluralism.

To our knowledge, there are no standardised procedures in Danish news media to ensure internal pluralism and give voice to various groups; this includes public service media. The public broadcaster DR, however, has a Director of Pluralism and Diversity who is in charge of a range of pluralism activities regarding recruitment of participants in popular programmes, for positions as journalists, and so forth.