A telling slip up by the EU?
I tend to think that the relationship between the fourth estate and anything it is writing on should be approximately that of a dog and a lamp post, otherwise the result will be something like Pravda, or in UK terms the copying and pasting of press releases which are then 'bylined'.
However, my old sparring partner Viviane Reding, a journalist prior to becoming the EU media commissar, seems to have gone just a little bit too native:
"Nine editors-in-chief discuss the future of the written press with Commission. How to improve the role of the written press in boosting public perceptions of Europe? How do editors-in-chief receive the Commission's recent media pluralism initiative? What is the impact of Web 2.0 features such as user-generated content and enhanced cross-media competition? These are topics for debate at a high-level meeting in Brussels today between Media Commissioner Viviane Reding and the written press". (My emphasis).
Among those presents are the editors of serious newspapers from Belgium, Spain and Austria. If they really are going along with that part of the EU's agenda, they owe their readers an apology, and La Redding needs to ask herself whether there is just the teeniest conflict of interest between the foregoing and this gallery of bromides:
"The written press faces excellent prospects in Web 2.0," says Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media. Many newspapers enjoy the deep trust of their readers. Free newspapers and user-generated contents will continue to gain ground, but I also think at the same time that journalism which is based on editorial discipline and on verifying the facts, will become even more important. The quality of editorial content has never been so important as today, as society overflows with information.”
However, my old sparring partner Viviane Reding, a journalist prior to becoming the EU media commissar, seems to have gone just a little bit too native:
"Nine editors-in-chief discuss the future of the written press with Commission. How to improve the role of the written press in boosting public perceptions of Europe? How do editors-in-chief receive the Commission's recent media pluralism initiative? What is the impact of Web 2.0 features such as user-generated content and enhanced cross-media competition? These are topics for debate at a high-level meeting in Brussels today between Media Commissioner Viviane Reding and the written press". (My emphasis).
Among those presents are the editors of serious newspapers from Belgium, Spain and Austria. If they really are going along with that part of the EU's agenda, they owe their readers an apology, and La Redding needs to ask herself whether there is just the teeniest conflict of interest between the foregoing and this gallery of bromides:
"The written press faces excellent prospects in Web 2.0," says Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media. Many newspapers enjoy the deep trust of their readers. Free newspapers and user-generated contents will continue to gain ground, but I also think at the same time that journalism which is based on editorial discipline and on verifying the facts, will become even more important. The quality of editorial content has never been so important as today, as society overflows with information.”
Labels: EU fun and games, Internet, Media, Reding
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 8:29 am.
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no wonder Peter mandelson feels so at home in Brussels.
Just like '97....
Mandelson. Oh,I think I'm going to be sick.
JJ - Thought you'd have a stronger stomach than that. Sorry if CU has given you the collywobbles.
As the Spanish paper included is El Pais that is losing readers everyday for its unmoved support for the Socialist Government, I can safely say that for the Spanish part there is no serious newspaper... ;)
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