The Press Complaints Commission in London has found 12 newspaper articles in print and online to have breached rules regarding suicide coverage for the story of a man who decapitated himself with a chainsaw. Clause 5 (ii) of the press Code of Practice was introduced to minimize the risk of copycat suicides by requiring editors to avoid publishing excessive detail about the method of suicide used. In this case, the newspapers in question had gone further than a simple reference to the fact that the man had used a chainsaw to kill himself. In particular, the newspapers had described the manner in which the chainsaw had been activated and positioned. The Commission considered this information to be excessive.

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Volume 2: Issue 11

We are pleased to offer our monthly newsletter in an online format. If you have not signed up to receive this monthly update, please sign up to join our mailing list on our homepage.

In this issue:  Executive Director Sarah Bauer reflects on a busy fall, Kate Myers gives an update on complaints received by the News Council, read advice to journalists about letters to the editor by Council member Jim Pumarlo, and Erika Roland gives an update from the Development Office. 

You can view Newsworthy Online by clicking here.

BY MARY TURCK , TC DAILY PLANET

The first annual Ethnic and Community Media Awards packed the Black Forest Inn banquet room December 5, in an event co-sponsored by New America Media and the Twin Cities Media Alliance. Matthew Little, Lauretta Dawolo Towns, Anne Holzman, David Zander, and Anna Pratt took top honors. The Minnesota Spokesman-Recorderwas the leading publication of the evening, with top articles in three categories, but overall the entries and winners represented the diversity of Minnesota media.

Anthony Advincula (New America Media-San Francisco) and Sarah Bauer (Minnesota News Council) presented the awards. Top winners in each category are automatically nominated for New America Media’s National Ethnic Media awards, which will be presented on June 4, 2009, in Atlanta, Georgia. More »

Go to http://www.mna.org/mna-resources/911-MNA.html to read the entire issue!  MNA monthly columnist and News Council member Jim Pumarlo talks about letters to the editor.

Editor’s notes on letters – a sure-fire way to squelch the exchange of ideas

by Jim Pumarlo

Letters to the editor truly are the lifeblood of editorial pages. Letters underscore the value of editorial pages and represent an active citizenry.

But the letters column, if it is to serve its greatest purpose, must be monitored or it can quickly become nondescript. The dos and don’ts of letters should be well understood by everyone at the newspaper, and it is equally important to let readers know the ground rules.

Too often, editors give free reign to letters and are hesitant to impose restrictions on “free expression” of ideas. In reality, a letters column without policies may prove more detrimental than beneficial to the exchange of ideas. More »

FROM WISCONSIN FREEDOM OF INFORMATION COUNCIL

3 in 10 public-records requests not properly fulfilled, new study finds

A statewide public records audit found that one in 10 requests for basic documents were denied or ignored by local governments. 

Another two in 10 requests were fulfilled only after records custodians
required the requesters to identify themselves or explain why they
wanted the documents, in violation of state law.

The audit, conducted by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, involved 318 public records requests filed in 65
counties.

“We were not trying to trick anyone,” says Bill Lueders, the Council’s elected president and news editor of Isthmus newspaper. “We asked for basic information that no one should have any problems getting. And yet
there were problems.” More »