Denmark: Voluntary Accountability Driven by Political Pressure

In Denmark the public debate on media ethics and accountability has seen an all-time high in recent years, culminating, in 2013, with an update of the common and institutionalised guidelines for press ethics. As recently as the summer 2014, in light of a media hacking scandal, the politicians again suggested new and more restrictive sanctions towards the news media in general, while the publisher’s organization accused the politicians of being opportunistic and of threatening press freedom.
For many years internal disputes between both the press organizations and specific media, as well as between the media industry and the government complicated the development of broadly accepted official rules and sanctions. Finally, political intervention in 1992 established a Press Council, which is now well institutionalized and widely accepted. Internal ethical guidelines have been unusual in the media industry, but, in the late 1980s and 1990s the three largest national dailies developed ethical guidelines, and in the last five to seven years more and more news media have followed. Today 64% of the news media are subject to such rules, most of which are to be found on the websites of the media organizations. Ethical documents are most common – and most specific – in broadcasting companies and well-established dailies as well as in the bigger regional media organizations. Guidelines are less common and less specific in web-based news media and local newspapers.