NEWS SHOP TALK – JUNE 22ND
Put this one in your diaries.
Our next shoptalk is happening on June 22nd, and it will be combined with our AGM, where members get to hear an update from our President, Margo Smit, a finance report from Treasurer Elisabeth Ribbans, and voting will take place for our key Board positions for the coming year.
It will also be chance to talk about our plans in relation to conferences. All this and so much more!
We will provide more information in due course on the topic of the shop talk that will be held at the commencement of the meeting. As ever, any suggestions from members on the most relevant and important issues for us to discuss are welcome, and they can be sent to Alan Sunderland at newsombudsmenorg@gmail.com
THE FUTURE OF ombuds AND PUBLIC EDITORS
Many of you may have listened to this already, but there was a fascinating session at the recent International Journalism Festival in Perugia on the ongoing role and relevance of the public editor.
Led by our own Kathy English (long-time ONO member and currently VP of Content Integrity and Editorial Standards at Dotdash, the discussion also involved ONO member Yavuz Baydar and a panel of distinguished journalists, editors and thinkers.
It is well worth a listen – click on the link above.
ONO WELCOMES ANOTHER NEW MEMBER
Very pleased to report that another new member has joined the ranks of ONO.
Eric Wishart from AFP, who joined us as a guest at our last shop talk, has joined us and will be a welcome and wise voice in our future discussions.
Here is some background on Eric, who has been the Standards and Ethics Editor at Agence France-Press since the end of 2021:
A former editor-in-chief of Paris-based AFP, Eric Wishart was appointed as the agency’s Standards and Ethics Editor in December 2021.
He currently works out of Hong Kong, and lectures in journalism at Hong Kong University and Hong Kong Baptist University, teaching news and feature writing, and conflict reporting.
He is a member of SPJ’s professional standards and ethics committee, a judge for the Hong Kong News Awards, and former president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong.
A native of Glasgow, he began his journalism career in Scottish newspapers in 1972 and joined AFP in 1984, working in Paris, the Middle East and Asia. In 1999, he became the first non-French editor-in-chief in the history of AFP, the world’s oldest news agency that traces its origins back to 1835.
After six years as editor-in-chief in Paris he returned to Hong Kong as Asia-Pacific director and in 2012 joined the agency’s global news management in Paris with responsibility for special editorial projects. During that time he drew up the AFP Charter setting out the Agency’s guiding principles; its code of ethics, which has been published in English, French, Arabic, Spanish and Chinese; the Agency’s 20 Principles of Sourcing; and carried out a major update of the AFP Stylebook, which he edits.
In December 2021 he was appointed Standards and Ethics Editor, a newly created position within the agency’s global news management.
AFP has a global network of around 2,400 journalists who work in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German and produce text, photo, video and graphics. It also has the world’s biggest digital verification network, with a team of more than 120 producing fact-checks in 24 languages.
Welcome aboard, Eric!
NEW WEBSITE PASSWORD
Please note that, for security and integrity reasons, we have updated the password on the ‘members only’ section of our website.
All current financial members of ONO should have received an email in recent days containing the new password. If you are currently financial and have not received it or are having any difficulties in accessing the site, please contact Alan Sunderland at newsombudsmenorg@gmail.com for assistance. Of course, if you have forgotten to pay your membership dues or need to delay that for any reason, please also contact Alan and he can assist.
ITEMS OF INTEREST
Don’t forget to check out the ONO website on a regular basis, as we are now updating the front page every week or so with new items of interest involving our members. If you have something you would like included either on the site or in this newsletter, contact Alan at newsombudsmenorg@gmail.com
- From NPR Public Editor Kelly McBride: turning bureaucratic-speak into plain language and other matters
- From Tim Pauwels at VRT: impartiality and war crimes
- ONO Member Tom Kent features in this excellent podcast on Getting Information into Russia
- Some fascinating new research from the Reuters Institute on Snap Judgements About Trust
- From Czech Radio Ombudsman Milan Pokorny this investigation into Morbid Details in News Reports
Hope to see you all on June 22nd – stay tuned for more details in our next newsletter!
Margo Smit Alan Sunderland ONO President ONO Executive Director |