Understanding the readers: 'Guardian' case<\/p>\n
The following is a report from Sirikit Syah, director of media
\nwatchdog the Consumers Press Institute and The Jakarta Post
\ncontributor in Surabaya, who recently visited Britain to attend a
\nmedia seminar. She talked with the man in charge of readers'
\ncomplaints at The Guardian newspaper.<\/p>\n
LONDON (JP): A likely surprise for an Indonesian visitor to
\nthe United Kingdom is the country's lack of a press law.
\nParliament is still struggling in intensive debates to pass the
\nfreedom of information bill.<\/p>\n
\"Because we don't have the law, newspapers are frequently
\nfaced with libel cases. The damage is usually huge,\" said Brian
\nWhittaker, the administrative manager of the The Guardian.<\/p>\n
It is not that The Guardian -- with a current daily
\ncirculation of 400,000 -- is involved in a lot of libel cases,
\nbut the absence of such a law leaves the press feeling uncertain.<\/p>\n
There is the Press Complaint Commission, which is supposed to
\nbe a press council. However, Labor Party MP Mark Fisher
\nacknowledged that it does not function. Many violations by the
\npress are not taken into consideration by the commission, which
\nhas led to lawsuits.<\/p>\n
\"It has no power over press organizations or journalists,\"
\nsaid Fisher, addressing the seminar \"Freedom of the Press,
\nCensorship and Human Rights\", held in Oxford in February.<\/p>\n
He also mentioned the lack of the right to reply. In
\nIndonesia, the new press law has already accommodated the
\npublic's need to the right to reply and the right to make
\ncorrections. Under the new law, a member of the press which does
\nnot publish a correction or response to an article could be
\nsubject to prosecution<\/p>\n
In the absence of clear laws, The Guardian decided to install
\nits own Readers' Editor two years ago.<\/p>\n
This is a department dealing with readers' complaints which
\nalso functions as a media watch, or ombudsman, for the paper.
\nThere are two people in charge, both appointed by The Guardian
\neditors -- Ian Mayes from inside the newspaper and John Willis,
\nthe external ombudsman.<\/p>\n
Mayes is a veteran journalist, having worked with The Guardian
\nfor the last 11 years. He has been in the media for 43 years,
\nincluding seven years at the BBC. Willis is a TV director.<\/p>\n
Mayes said many mass media companies claimed to have
\nombudsmen. \"Even The Sun says it has an ombudsman. Do they really
\nfunction? I can't comment on that.\"<\/p>\n
Mayes takes care of daily complaint letters and calls. He
\nmonitors the newspaper, and writes a weekly column. His column
\nappears every Saturday, under the rubric Saturday Review -- The
\nReaders' Editor. The topics vary, such as \"balancing the opposing
\nviews on Yugoslavia\", \"our (The Guardian) relationship with the
\ngovernment\", \"how a photograph can tell the wrong story\",
\n\"multicultural newspapers\" and \"misuse of mental health terms\".<\/p>\n
Mayes said there were 12,000 complaints in two years, with
\nmost sent by e-mail.<\/p>\n
In the last two years, he said there were five or six serious
\ncases related to journalists' integrity. The cases proceeded to
\nPCC and to the courts. Even though most of the complaints were
\nrelated to editorial content, they also included advertisements,
\nmissing sections, missed delivery and other technical matters.<\/p>\n
He received more than 300 complaints when the paper moved the
\ncrosswords section to another page.<\/p>\n
\"That was an editorial decision. I talked to them (editors),
\nand finally they moved it back,\" Mayes said.<\/p>\n
The Guardian is also planning to set up a consumers'
\ndepartment dealing with noneditorial matters.<\/p>\n
Rather surprisingly, Mayes said, many complaints concerned the
\nnewspaper's use of language.<\/p>\n
\"And this is The Guardian,\" Mayes said of the respected
\npublication. \"More people are concerned with our grammar,
\nstructures, choice of words.\" There are also complaints on
\npolitical coverage, too, especially from correspondents in
\nforeign countries.<\/p>\n
Mayes admitted that at first he faced skepticism among
\njournalists about what he was doing. He talked to them and showed
\nthem that his reports gave a picture of how their readers reacted
\nto their work.<\/p>\n
\"Now they (the journalists) have are used to the idea of moral
\nand ethical values of journalistic works. With the feedback, we
\nhave a chance to correct (our reporting), which we always do.\"<\/p>\n
Asked about the most common mistakes of journalists, he said:
\n\"The highest percentage is that the reporters do not check and
\nrecheck. Number two, production or editors' errors.\"<\/p>\n
One big mistake, he said, was a case of perceived political
\nbias. A young reporter, who happened to be of Asian origin,
\ninterviewed a woman entertainer, who was black. The woman said
\n\"to support party\", but the reporter mistakenly reported she said
\n\"to support apartheid\".<\/p>\n
An apology was not enough. The woman sued and the paper had to
\npay a large sum for the damage, which Mayes declined to disclose.<\/p>\n
Mayes said the best strategy to deal with complaints was
\nhonesty.<\/p>\n
\"You should admit your mistake, then apologize. Mostly, it
\nends there. Just be honest as possible, and put together quickly.
\nWe try to understand why and how people get hurt by the press. By
\nunderstanding them, hopefully we do better.\"<\/p>",
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