Manitoba Press Council

Newspapers may be the best positioned of all mass media outlets to take advantage of the possibilities the Internet offers. They still provide the most local news, detail, follow-up, reporting experience, informed comment, and credibility. They have a commitment to credible and quality journalism that is not as evident or stated in much of the content on the Internet.

The Canadian Internet Project, an ongoing study available at www.mediaresearch.ca, released the following information last year on the impact of online journalism.

“Traditional Media Use: As time spent online has increased, use of traditional media has declined slightly. In particular, television viewing has declined since 2004, though the decline has been the same for internet users and non-users. For the most part, online activities appear to supplement rather than displace traditional media use. In general, new media applications and activities are being added to an existing media diet that includes substantial time spent with conventional media, even for youth and younger internet users.”

So how are press councils dealing with the Internet?  As many Canadian Press Councils have done, The Manitoba Press Council has already added adjudications of complaints concerning Internet material by newspaper members. The Quebec Press Council has always had radio and TV stations as members and considered any complaints against them.

Canadian Press Councils certainly have the experience that can be applied to other media. The key issue for a press cuncil is content, not the platform used to distribute that content.

Most of our member papers are smaller community weeklies and have not yet added online material so we have not seen much difference from the past. Our most recent adjudication of a complaint did include detail of online material, including videos, along with what was published in the daily newspaper. We expect that will happen more often.

. Besides adjudicating complaints, press councils serve as a medium of understanding between the public and the press, and encourage the highest ethical standards of journalism. That need has not diminished with the arrival of the Internet. Councils have also shown more respect for the importance of freedom of expression than some heavy-handed government regulators in human rights commissions have recently and the CRTC did with radio regulations in the early 70s.