Research
With an allowance of the Stimuleringsfonds voor de Pers (promotion fund for the media) the Press Council carried out a comparative research among several other European countries – Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and Sweden – to examine their procedures and budgets.
The report “Press Councils in Western Europe, Studies for the Netherlands Press Fund – S22” can be ordered with the publisher or can be downloaded as PDF-file:
AMB-uitgevers
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E amb-uitgevers@xs4all.nl
On the basis of the results the Netherlands Press Council has taken certain steps to improve its organisation. The council has attracted five ‘public members’ through an open selection procedure. Further, as from March 1st 2010, new regulations for the council’s activities have become effective, in which is provided for:
- more mediation activities;
- a simplified procedure for processing complaints (by the chairman and secretary together) in cases where the council clearly has no jurisdiction, the complainant is obviously inadmissible and/or the complaint is plainly unjustified;
- the possibility of reviewing decisions of the council.
Moreover the staff of the council has increased with a paid chairman for 16 hours/week and an assistant secretary for 20 hours/week. To implement these improvements, the council needed more funding and therefore it has applied for additional financial support by the government. This support is granted for a temporary period of three years.