Four Information Law masters students are co-authors of Open Journalism: The Road Travelled and the Road Ahead, a report that was published this week by the Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM) of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The students, Melanie Klus, Cees Plaizier and Maxime Hanhart (Informatierecht Masters Programme) and Bojana Kostić (Research Masters Programme in Information Law), all wrote sections of the report. Dr. Tarlach McGonagle (IViR) supervised the students’ work and Ronan Ó Fathaigh (IViR) also contributed to the publication.

The publication is the concluding report for a high-profile project coordinated by the Office of the OSCE RFOM that explored the legal, ethical and practical dimensions of ‘open journalism’. The term, ‘open journalism’, refers to the expanding range of actors who nowadays carry out journalistic activities or who contribute to public debate in other comparable or relevant ways. Do journalists and other actors engaging in journalistic activities collaborate or compete with one another? Who is responsible and liable for the content they produce? Which legal and ethical standards govern the activities of journalists, bloggers and social media service providers? These and other related questions arose during the project and in the report.

The report provides an overview of key issues, opportunities and challenges for open journalism. It summarizes the discussions of the three expert meetings that formed the backbone of the OSCE RFOM’s project and it presents a selection of interesting and promising examples of open journalism from across the OSCE region.

The OSCE is the largest regional security organization in the world. It comprises 57 participating States in North America, Europe and Asia. The RFOM is a specialized body of the OSCE focusing on the protection of media freedom, independence and pluralism.