members to the rule of law, by incorporating senior judiciary into the CSCE process.
The editorial voice also needs to be reinforced within the vital area of continuing dialogue. The
proprietors and trade union interests are already well-served by FIEJ and the IFJ but when one looks at
the necessary mechanisms for achieving self-regulation much supported throughout the seminar, the
gap can be seen quite clearly. Who will police self-regulation? It should, in my submission, be editors
and I would commend the formation of national groups linked under the umbrella of a pan-European
association. I know my own association of British Editors and the Association of European Journalists
would be happy to work with any other organisation to make that possible and I hope the CSCE might
also use its influence in this area.
Although most delegates are confident that the historical use of the term "press freedom" applies to all
media, this needs to be underlined and, in view of the explosion of new technologies, we ought to
consider developing the use of "media freedom" as a more appropriate term. In doing so, we should also
recognise that there are additional problems for radio and television professionals.
A combination of economics and the regulated system of signal distribution make it unlikely that
television stations in the Eastern European countries will be able to take short-term advantage of the
new technology.
A colleague from Slovakia appealed for help in the creation of some form of sustaining service to be
available to all countries across the region. This provoked much discussion about national and regional
identity and some scepticism about the feasibility.
However, our Washington colleague, David Webster, who has been working on the idea for some time
asserts that it is technically possible but - and I quote - "it will need political will and a leap of the
imagination to make it happen with a mix of public and private finance." Whether or not that will exist
or can be stimulated remains to be seen. I hope the CSCE and interested NGOs might make a serious
study of the possibilities. I know Mr. Webster will be more than ready to co-operate.
One of the special features of this seminar has been the quality and range of written material submitted
by a sometimes bewildering array of individuals and organisations. I suspect the volume is such that it
will take some weeks to properly digest the information the documents contain but I do strongly
commend them to delegates and urge the ODIHR to consider publishing them in some form. Within
them are solutions to many problems and that allows this report to be much briefer than would
otherwise have been necessary. Please, fellow delegates, use these papers to light your imaginations
rather than your bonfires!
I am indebted to a colleague from Norway who reminded us that freedom - and in our context that
means media freedom - must be put to the test every day if it is not to vanish. I cannot think of a better
watchword for journalists throughout the world.
Mr. Jock Gallagher, U.K.
Executive Director, Association of British Editors
Discussion Group 2, Journalistic Freedom and Responsibility in a Democratic System:
Our topic was journalistic freedom and responsibility in a democratic media system - a Janus-like
formulation that is the hallmark of any good-faith effort to discuss the topic of contending claims in the
constant clash known as democracy. Ambivalence ran through our exchanges: freedom versus
responsibility, democracy versus system, the rights of individuals as journalists or as citizens. This
dynamic is inherent in the media's role in democracy, where press freedom is always a process, never an
end state. Like the vote, it can never be captured permanently. If it is constricted by over-zealous
regulation, the media will re-invent itself - but in underground forms less likely to function in the
daylight of democratic give and take. Shooting the messenger because one does not like the message is a
CSCE ODIHR BULLETIN Vol. 2, No. 1
27
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