As already stated in the previous section, there is an ethical code, editorial statutes, and publishing guidelines, but in practice these elements of self-organisation primarily serve the interests of the industry and the concerned company. Nevertheless, they provide direct and indirect information about the status of accountability of media companies and journalism.
According to the 2011 publication Mapping Media Accountability (Fengler et al., 2011), media accountability to society is primarily based on measures and instruments that are initiated and accounted for by the industry and individual publishing houses themselves. In the Swiss context, these include:
- Press Council and Code of Ethics of the industry
- editorial statutes in media organisations and on news platforms
- journalistic guidelines of editorial offices and media organisations (Code of Conduct)
- readership reactions in the media and on platforms
- industry and corporate communications: media releases, in-house magazines, organisational charts, quality reporting, portfolio, annual reports, annual reports, letters to shareholders, et cetera
- ombudsperson offices of media organisations and news platforms
- media journalism (including media and journalism criticism) in daily media
- industry magazines (e.g., “Schweizer Journalist”) and industry newsletters (e.g., newsletter of the VSM)
- news archives
- fact-checking organisations in media organisations and on news platforms
All these corporate measures and professional arrangements enable media organisations to articulate and justify their privileges and claims to power in business, politics, and society. The extent to which these activities not only promote self-organisation but also strengthen the accountability of media and journalism would need further examination in detail. In any case, the accountability of the media is not a matter of course and cannot be left to the industry. Civil society and the state are also called upon to do the same.
