When journalists are playing a public watchdog role, who is making sure that journalists and media organisations adhere to their standards and ethics? With the digital transformation in the media and the widespread of disinformation, media self-regulatory framework plays an ever-important role in upholding standards in journalism while preventing state intervention through media regulations to stifle media freedom. The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) together with a consortium of six European press councils and two universities journalists have launched a project “Media Councils in the Digital Age” with the aims to support the European models of media self-regulation through a network…

The digital revolution is largely impacting the way journalists and media are producing and sharing news content. In this changing media landscape, self-regulatory bodies, which were created before the digital revolution for most of them, must adapt to the involving environment. This project aims at highlighting the important role of press and media councils in times of decreasing trust towards journalists and media outlets combined with increasing disinformation on new media. It will look at the digital challenges through 4 main components: academic work to provide data and analysis regarding existing press councils, awareness campaign to promote media self-regulation, visibility…