Media accountability is increasingly important, especially in times of increasing media concentration.

Twelve research teams have formed with the collective aim of examining the state of media accountability in Europe over the next three and a half years. “Media Accountability and Transparency in Europe” (MediaAct for short) is the title of the project, consisting of 10 teams from Western and Eastern European countries as well as two teams from the Arabic region. Managed by the Erich Brost Institute for International Journalism at the University of Dortmund, the project will research traditional instruments of media accountability such as ethical codes and press councils in addition to new instruments such as blogs and online ombudsmen.

Representatives of the European Journalism Observatory were present at the kick-off meeting in Dortmund and interviewed several researchers about media accountability, media ethics and innovations in journalism. Heikki Heikkilä from the Journalism Research and Development Centre at the University of Tampere is the first in our interview series.

In the next few weeks you will find more interviews with representatives from Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Switzerland and the United Kingdom accessible here on the EJO homepage.

More information about the MediaAct project can be found here.