Wednesday morning on 26 July 2023, online workshop activities on “accountability and media, tools and functions”, which are being held by Ethical Charter for Syrian Media, were launched.
Journalist trainer Arwa Kooli, assistant professor at the Institute of Journalism and News Sciences in Tunisia, began the first session by defining accountability, explaining that it is ensuring that individuals or institutions are evaluated for their performance or behavior related to a specific matter based on their responsibilities.
Kooli stressed that the main goal of accountability is enhancing transparency and legal and ethical accountability in the performance of individuals and institutions, by verifying compliance with professional standards and governing laws and regulations, and implementing the tasks and responsibilities assigned to institutions and individuals properly and effectively.
Participants discussed the terms and pillars of accountability in the decentralized democratic system, such as transparency, access to information, citizen media, effective civil society, political management, and broad citizen participation. And they implemented a practical training on the information they received during the first session.
The second session included the role of the media in accountability through highlighting important issues that must have an impact in society. Kooli indicated that the media outlets can be a transmitter for unheard and oppressed voices, and promote civic participation by enabling the public to self-analyze information and events. She also declared that the media has a role in holding governments, institutions, companies and individuals accountable and monitored, by analyzing and discussing their performance, exposing corruption and violations, and providing information and data to the public.
Participants discussed the main roles of the media in society, the most important of which is providing the community with important and reliable news, in addition to monitoring to ensure good governance, and considering the media outlets as a platform for democratic discussion and exchange of views, and a mirror of diversity in society.
Kooli emphasized during the discussion on the relationship of accountability to the media that the media institution must have awareness, vigilance, and close follow-up of the government and politicians, and that it possesses skills that allow it to hold the government accountable, through strategies that enable it to play its role in protecting the public interest. And applicating these strategies by relying on periodic evaluation of what it implements and carries out in terms of accountability, and measuring the improvement in its performance through accountability, in order to finally measure the impact achieved by its work in the short and long term.
After that, participants carried out practical training through which they identified a current topic of interest to the country, and chose local and regional media outlets, by comparing their coverage of the topic, in order to analyze the presence of accountability in these contents, identify the party subject to accountability, and how to involve the public in it, by working to measure impact in the selected institution.
The third session focused mainly on the reasons for accountability of the media by the public, during which participants carried out practical training during which they chose a local or regional news website, and worked to determine the extent of its commitment to the standards of media accountability, such as the announcement of the correction policy, the editorial structure, funding sources, the editorial charter, commitment to professional charters, and roviding a clear mechanism for receiving and addressing complaints.
The workshop will continue its work tomorrow, Thursday, as participants will discuss accountability tools and mechanisms through highlighting how accountability is applied in journalistic work and its impact on society.
