THE SNS DEMOCRATIC AUDIT 2005/SNS DEMOKRATIRÅD 2005
The Integrity of Mass Media
Report from the Democratic Audit of Sweden 2005
Olof Petersson, Monika Djerf-Pierre, Jesper Strömbäck, and Lennart Weibull
Summary in English
Free and independent media are supposed to be a prerequisite for a vital democracy, but most media institutions are today under strong pressure. This report gives an overview of the Swedish media structure and its regulatory framework. It concludes with a series of proposals for strengthening the integrity of media organizations and individual journalists.
CONTENTS1 Media and democracy
Hated media?
Loved media?
Isolation, integration or integrity?
Freedom, power and responsibility of media
Regulation, monitoring, and accountability
2 The integrity of the media system
The mass media: a system?
The rules of the media system
Conclusions
3 The integrity of the media company
The character of the media company
The Swedish media market
The media company: power and responsibility
Media companies under scrutiny
Conclusions
4 The integrity of the editorial department
The constitution of the editorial department
Editorial departments in question
Ethical self-regulation
Editorial department under scrutiny
Conclusions
5 The integrity of the journalist
The task and responsibility of individual journalists
Rules and individual accountability
Ethical standards in the journalistic profession
Conclusions
6 Conclusions
Regulation, monitoring, and accountability
How to strengthen the integrity of mass media
Democracy and mass media
Mediernas integritet. Demokratirådets rapport 2005.
Olof Petersson, Monika Djerf-Pierre, Jesper Strömbäck, and Lennart Weibull
SNS Förlag, Stockholm 2005
The Democratic Audit of Sweden is organized by SNS, the Swedish Center for Business and Policy Studies, a Stockholm-based research organization. The task set itself by successive Democratic Audit Groups has been to contribute to a constructive, objective debate on the workings of Swedish democracy by highlighting different aspects of the Swedish political system. The group is variously composed each year, but it is always made up of four to five independent social scientists.
