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 »

Volume 2: Issue 10

We are pleased to offer our monthly newsletter in an online format. If you have not signed up to receive this update regularly, sign up to join our mailing list on our homepage. You can view Newsworthy Online by clicking here.

Inside this issue:

- What do you think about election news coverage?

-The National Press Club Comes to Minneapolis

- Coming to a High School Near You

- Silha Lecture Recap

- From the Development Office

By Patrick File, 2008 Silha Fellow

2008 Silha Lecturer Siobhan Butterworth was introduced as “a member of an endangered species” - as readers’ editor, or internal ombudsman, for The Guardian newspaper in London, Butterworth is among a shrinking group of editors whose primary responsibility is to address reader complaints, clarifications, and corrections in the daily newspaper and online.

In introducing Butterworth’s Oct. 6, 2008 lecture, entitled “Raise Your Hand if You’re a Journalist: Does Responsible Reporting Need a Legal Defense?” Silha Center director and professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota Jane Kirtley pointed out a recent Editor & Publisher magazine report that between September 2007 and September 2008, 10 U.S. newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee, The Sun of Baltimore, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune, dropped their ombudsmen as part of wider financial cuts, suggesting that newspapers increasingly consider the position expendable. More »

The National Press Club, the world’s leading professional organization for journalists, and the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Minnesota Journalism Center are teaming up to look at the future of the news media and how to protect its core values.

The Nov. 17 event will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the University’s Coffman Memorial Union on the east bank of the Minneapolis campus. The event is free and open to the public. Parking information is available at http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/maps/CMU/CMU-map.html.

This NPC Centennial Forum on The First Amendment, Freedom of the Press and the Future of Journalism will feature leading Minnesota journalists: Nancy Barnes, editor and senior vice president, Minneapolis Star Tribune ; Thom Fladung, editor and vice president, St. Paul Pioneer Press; Joel Kramer, chief executive officer and editor, MinnPost; and Nora Paul, director, University of Minnesota Institute for New Media Studies. The panel will be moderated by Alan Bjerga, a Bloomberg News correspondent, the Club’s treasurer, and a University of Minnesota alum. More »

Pictured: Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute (by Scott Theisen for MN SPJ)

On September 21, 2008 MN SPJ convened a panel including journalists, law enforcement and city government officials to discuss why so many journalists were arrested during the RNC, and how the arrest of journalists can be avoided in the future.  The discussion was moderated by Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute.

You can watch video of the entire event online.  The event video is separated into four parts.  Click below to watch.  Also visit our Flickr page to see photos from the event.

Your Credentials, Please:  Video Part I

Your Credentials, Please:  Video Part II

Your Credentials, Please:  Video Part III

Your Credentials, Please:  Video Part IV

October 5 - 11, 2008

It is a celebration emphasizing the importance of newspapers in fostering improved community service, participation and responsiveness in the everyday lives of citizens.

The theme for this week is “PUBLIC NOTICES IN NEWSPAPERS … Because good government depends on it.”

This item comes from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues blog.

A new law in Connecticut requires towns to post meeting notices and agendas on their Web site. But instead of complying with the law, the towns are shutting down their Web sites. They don’t have the time to post meeting notices and agendas.

And what better time for this story to make the headlines — Sunday, October 5 starts National Newspaper Week (October 5-11). The focus is on public notices. For this year’s NNWeek kit click here and promote the heck out of National Newspaper Week’s reinforcing the reason public notices are in the newspaper. Click here for the story.

Source: MNA Bulletin