Shortly before the collapse of the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition government in May this year, the independence of Austria’s public broadcaster ORF seemed seriously threatened. Government’s attempts to eliminate license fees, if successful, would make the ORF dependant on the government for budgetary decisions. This, in turn, would increase the risk of interference by government’s representatives in […]

Struck by his own experience in dealing face-to-face with his own harasser, Sami Koivisto, head of audience dialogue at the Finnish public broadcaster Yle, used this ordeal in developing a company guide on how to address online abuse on social media. In a detailed and intense article, Koivisto recounted his personal experience of the mediation […]

“If you want to get rid of independent and public media, the first thing you have to do is convince the people that it is not needed”, Nina Horaczek, chief reporter for the Viennese weekly Falter, told the International Press Institute (IPI) in a recent interview. It’s an objective that appears to be a driving […]

The International Press Institute (IPI) has published a new resource for online moderators of news outlets to address abuse that takes place on social media. The tools and strategies for managing debate on Facebook and Twitter are part of IPI’s Newsrooms Ontheline platform, which collects best practices for countering online harassment against journalists. Newsrooms worldwide […]