The regulation of the Press in Europe: the case of Press Councils

Abstract

The press originates and develops in Europe as an essential media for the building of free democracies, able to counterbalance other powers such as the political or the economic. However, and despite the importance of it as a fundamental tool for safeguarding rights such as freedom of expression and freedom of information, press regulation is not understood in a similar way in all European countries. Regulatory solutions for the press, the ‘rules of the game’, are different depending upon historical circumstances of each of the countries conforming Europe. The main question in this work is the following: Who guards the guardians? In order to answer that question, this article compares different regulatory models of the press in Europe intending to open up a necessary debate in Spain. In particular, this work analyses those Press

Councils of Sweden, Germany, Denmark and Ireland as institutions with the capacity to promote integrity of good governance and government of both public and private sectors and civil society. The analysis of Press Councils covers the following issues: origins, purposes, financing frameworks, regulatory models, codes of conduct, complaint systems and responsibilities.