The freedom of the press anchored in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany includes the independence and freedom of information, of the expression of opinions and criticism. Publishers, editors and journalists must be aware of their responsibility to the public and their obligation for the standing of the press in their work. They perform their journalistic tasks to the best of their abilities and consciences, uninfluenced by personal interest and motives that have no connection to the matter in hand.

The journalistic principles of the German Press Council, which was founded in 1956, define the professional ethics of the press. This comprises the duty of maintaining the standing of the press and standing up for the freedom of the press within the framework of the constitution and the laws in line with the constitution.

a) Legal basis of the press's self-monitoring
The constitutional framework for the press's self-monitoring and, thus, for the work of the German Press Council is provided by Article 5 para. 1 of the Basic Law with its individual guarantees as regards basic rights. It ensures freedom to express opinions and freedom of information, guarantees the freedom of the press, broadcasting and film and expressly emphasises the prohibition of censorship.

These "basic rights of communication" are countered by other legal positions on basic rights of the constitution. We only need to think of the principle of human dignity contained in Article 1 of the Basic Law, the general right to personal freedom in Article 2 of the Basic Law and the right for self-determination as regards the information derived from this by the Federal Constitutional Law, which is also reflected in current data protection legislation. But the basic constitutional organisation as well as the democratic principles restrict the freedom to express opinions and freedom of the press. General laws, that may have been passed to protect these other legal interests, limit the basic rights of communication. Here, we only need to mention the example of protection of honour and state security crimes in the Penal Code, copyright law, labour, cartel, taxation law and, naturally, Articles 12, 823 and 1004 of the Civil Code. As "general laws" they, however, must be in line with the requirements of Article 5 para. 2 of the Basic Law, i.e. special laws limiting the press would be contrary to the constitution. The Federal Constitutional Court has issued various judgements on the requirements of basic rights and has set up a strict catalogue of criteria. According to this, general laws, too, must always be worded and applied in such a way that they ensure sufficiently strong implementation of the basic rights of communication.

Each of the Land press laws emphasises the basic principle of the freedom of the press. In each of the introductory provisions they specify: "The press is free." All of the Land press laws contain provisions that are of fundamental significance for the understanding of a voluntary self-monitoring by the press. According to these, special measures of any type that restrict the freedom of the press are prohibited and professional organisations of the press with compulsory membership and a jurisdiction of the press by the press equipped with sovereign force are not permitted. Nevertheless, the principle of professional self-monitoring of the press system has been familiar for a long time. Effective self-monitoring makes third party control by the state superfluous and, thus, ensures the freedom of the press from the state. If the professions of the press ensure order in their own ranks themselves, there is no need for the state to intervene. Self-monitoring is better than state monitoring.

This is where the task and the work of the German Press Council begin. The work of this institution of voluntary self-monitoring and the implementing force of its decisions - also for the accommodation of the right to personal freedom as well as the procedural guarantees within the framework of the complaint procedure - are now generally accepted. The complaint's work related to individual cases does not only mean high practical competence in the solution of conflict issues relating to media ethics, it also thus indirectly supports the players in setting up the professional ethic. Precisely this is an advantage of the legal structure of the German Press Council; that it takes effect not on the basis of supervision on high but by means of co-ordination. Thus, the German Press Council is an institutionalised organ of the major associations of the press under private law, the powers of which are based on the image of the qualified private critic and to which every individual can appeal.

b) Historical development
In 1952 the Federal Ministry of the Interior submitted a draft Federal Press Act, which provided for the establishment of a self-monitoring instance in the form of a body under public law. Due to the planned state monitoring this draft met with tremendous opposition from the journalist and publisher associations and was not carried through. Following the example of the British Press Council of 1953, the journalist and publisher associations formed the German Press Council on 20. November 1956.

c) Structure of the German Press Council
The German Press Council is a non-profit association (eingetragener Verein, e.V.) in accordance with the Civil Code and thus a legal person under private law. Its structures and duties are governed in its statutes of 25 February 1985. According to these, the "Trägerverein des Deutschen Presserats e.V." (association of sponsors of the German Press Council) is a conglomerate of the publisher and journalist associations [Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger e.V. (BDZV), Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger e.V. (VDZ), Deutscher Journalistenverband e.V. (DJV) and Deutsche Journalisten Union in Ver.di (dju)] with the purpose of standing up for the freedom of the press in Germany and of maintaining the standing of the German press. Two members from each of the four organisations belong to the association of sponsors (Trägerverein). The association of sponsors' primarily concerns itself with the legal, financial and personnel decisions of the organisation.

As a specialist body, the association of sponsors maintains the plenary (Plenum) of the German Press Council (the actual "Press Council") as well as the two complaints committees (Beschwerdeausschuss) elected from the 28-member plenary: the general complaints committee with two chambers and 8 members each and the complaints committee for editorial data protection with 6 members. The latter committee includes one publisher of freesheets. All of the bodies of the German Press Council are voluntarily staffed by publishers and journalists for a period of two years in office upon the appropriate proposal of the sponsor organisation. The chair of the bodies changes every two years among the four organisations. Unlike various press self-monitoring bodies (Ombudsman in the Scandinavian countries, Dutch Press Council or the English Press Complaints Commission), this is a pure self-monitoring institution, i.e. no external expert is the chairman of the German Press Council and its bodies.

d) Duties of the German Press Council
According to Article 9 of the statutes of the German Press Council, it has the following duties:
- to determine irregularities in the press and to work towards clearing them up,
- to stand up for unhindered access to the sources of news,
- to give recommendations and guidelines for journalistic work,
- to stand against developments which could endanger free information and formation of opinions among the public,
- to investigate and decide on complaints about individual newspapers, magazines or press services and
- Self-regulation of editorial data protection

The Press Council expressly does not involve itself with two areas of duties: with issues relating to tariff policy and with competitive law.

In performing its duties the Press Council issues recommendations and guidelines for journalistic work. At this point, the journalistic principles, the so-called Press Code, and the guidelines for journalistic work must be pointed out. Since its foundation in 1956, the Press Council has continuously developed a catalogue of guidelines that are to serve editors and publishers. The question as to whether a new guideline is to be drawn up for a specific problem, frequently comes up in the course of a complaint procedure. This body of rules is thus "case-law" in the real sense. In recent times there were several specific occasions when the guidelines were expanded and updated. For example, issues that occurred within the framework of complaints work where the permissibility of stating people's names when reporting on crimes, detection and criminal procedures (Figures 8 and 13 of the Press Code) became topical and were answered conclusively. Furthermore the German Press Council further defined the glorification of violence and the prohibition of discrimination (Figures 11 and 12 of the Press Code) as well as the prohibition of bribes (Figure 15 of the Press Code). Thus, "common sense" has been made part of journalistic work which naturally cannot be included in legal provisions.

The key task of the Press Council is, thus, to investigate and to decide on individual complaints on publications or happenings in the press. This is done on the basis of a complaints order that ensures that everybody can turn to the Press Council free of charge in order to receive help from there. Last year (2004) roughly 700 people, associations, institutions, etc. wrote to the German Press Council seeking help and making complaints. They are complaining about publications due to possible infringements against the duties of care, due to search methods by journalists or due to the infringement of the right to personal freedom, for example within the framework of court reporting. Often questions in connection with the publication of readers' letters or satirical contributions have to be answered and investigated as to whether contribution contains discriminatory information on groups of people.

Approximately two thirds of all complaints can be dealt with at an early stage without a formal decision by the complaints commission. Mostly the central office of the German Press Council can successfully mediate between the parties concerned. In justified cases the complaints commission of the German Press Council issues editorial notes, censures and - in the case of severe journalistic infringements - public reprimands. The latter have to be published in the publication complained about within the framework of a voluntary undertaking.

These measures of the German Press Council, in the event of infringements of the Press Code being detected, in particular censures and reprimands, are a form of the "peer scolding" that is particularly unpopular in publishing houses and newspapers and which is to be avoided at all costs.

From 1 January 2002 onwards the German Press Council took on responsibility for self-regulation of editorial data protection in the press. The Press Code, which already contained regulations on the issue of individuals’ rights in its existing versions, has been supplemented to cover this new task. For example, the Preamble has been revised and Figures 3 and 8 have been expanded.

If a reader believes that his or her data have not be handled properly in an editorial office he or she can make a complaint about this to the Press Council. The complaints about the violation of individuals’ rights are then dealt with according to the expanded Press Code. In addition, there is also a catalogue that takes precautions for data security in editorial offices which was issued in June 2003.

An Example of Media Self-Regulation in Europe
The German Press Council celebrates its 50th Anniversary on 20th November

On 20th November 2006, the voluntary self-regulation of the printed media will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its existence. The German Press Council, which is carried by journalist and publisher associations, is one of the oldest institutions dedicated to the self regulation of the media in Europe. Even boundaries of the freedom of the press are observed. Its mission is to observe, reprimand and, where possible, remove any corruption, abuse, degeneration and dubious infringements of the rules of fair and responsible journalistic conduct, and at the same time, to observe that the standing of the press remains in accordance with its duty to the general public”.

Defending the Freedom of the Press
“The standing of the press and the freedom of the press, remain to this day, the two most significant aims of the German Press Council”, according to Fried von Bismarck, the spokesman of the German Press Council. The successes of the German Press Council during the last 50 years are best reflected in the constraint of the State in passing laws defining the boundaries of journalism. Nevertheless, to this very day, the German Press Council continues to monitor whether special rights of the press, such as the protection of informants or the right to refuse to give evidence, are observed without any restrictions. The searching of the editorial offices of the monthly political magazine, “Cicero” and the bugging affair surrounding the newspaper editors in Dresden and Wolfsburg, are evidence that the freedom of the press is to this day endangered. The conglomerate that forms the Association of Sponsors of the German Press Council: the Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger (BDZV), the Verband Deutscher Zeitschriftenverleger (VDZ), the Deutsche Journalistenverband (DJV) and the Deutsche Journalistinnen- und Journalistenunion (DJU), work hand in hand in the German Press Council to prevent any such undermining of the freedom of the press. The latest cases also give rise to the impression that, above all, the investigators become active because they want to discover the names of informants or uncover journalistic sources. Ilka Desgranges, a member of the German Press Council, points out that, “in doing so, it is forbidden to implement measures that actually target the investigation of leaks”. Therefore the German Press Council has now called for a more detailed definition of the restrictions on confiscation in the German Code of Criminal Procedure.

Greatest Test after 25 Years
The 50-year history of the German Press Council has not escaped without any crises. The greatest test of the German Press Council came in 1977 with the undercover research of Günter Wallraff at the Bild newspaper. He brought to light the controversial working methods of the tabloid. The Complaints Committee of the German Press Council treated several of the cases he had researched and publicly reprimanded Günter Wallraff on one count for his objectionable undercover research and publicly reprimanded the Bild newspaper on six counts. The next test came with the unsettled issue of the public reprimand being printed as a voluntary undertaking. When the Kölner Express newspaper refused to print a public reprimand in 1981, the German Press Council temporarily put an end to its activities. The voluntary undertaking of the publishing houses to print the public reprimands, which to this day more than 90 percent of the publishing houses have agreed to, saw the German Press Council take up its work again in 1985.

European Commitment
On 10th June 1999 the German Press Council and other voluntary media self regulation organisations in Europe came together to found the “Alliance of Independent Press Councils of Europe – AIPCE” in London. In the interest of their aim to uphold the freedom of the press, the press councils in the different countries in Europe work together to observe the basic rules of fair and clean journalism and the observance of their own professional ethical principles. The expressed self-regulation of the press is necessary, even if only to reiterate the fact that it should not be a matter for the legislator, whether national or international, to correct any infringements with regard to journalistic fair play and the duty of care in a professional ethical sense.

In the meantime, many countries from Eastern and Central Europe have also established new press councils, such as the Press Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2000 and the Bulgarian Press Council in 2005. The AIPCE network has become a forum for cooperation, coordination and the exchange of knowledge among European press councils.

Common Professional Ethics and Moral Instance
The concept of the German Press Council is based on the established professional ethics of journalistic principles and the responsible actions of publishers, editors and journalists. The critics of the German Press Council see a weakness in this concept; the German Press Council sees its strength anchored precisely in this concept. The metaphor of the toothless tiger continues to be strained to this day within this context. Particularly the enforcement of its decisions is questioned by the critics, as the voluntary undertaking to publish public reprimands, as stated under figure 16 of the Press Code, is not always adhered to. However, in spite of these isolated cases where there are difficulties, the fundamental concept of the German Press Council remains based on the principle of self-regulation. It is not a jurisdiction of the profession, but rather sees itself as a moral instance that does not need to impose penalties, fines or ban anyone from the profession and does not need to enforce its decisions.

It would be wrong to causally compare the deficits or lacking quality of journalistic reporting with any lack of quality in the self-regulation. After all, one does not measure the rate of crime in a society according to the quality of its courts. Rupert Gießler already wrote in 1956 that, “the issue of the press is an issue of the state of mind of the general public itself. The press does not act in a vacuum, but rather in a force field of currents of time and the attitudes of readers.”