Consortium
Great Britain – The MediaWise Trust (MWT)
Brief description of the legal entity
The MediaWise Trust (formerly PressWise) is an independent charity, set up in 1993 by ‘victims of media abuse’, supported by concerned journalists, media lawyers and politicians in the UK. MediaWise operates on the principle that press freedom is a responsibility exercised by journalists on behalf of the public, and that the public has a right to know when the media publish inaccurate information. Its main goal is to improve the standards and standing of journalism, and its extensive website includes indexed journalistic codes of conduct from around the world.
MediaWise has established an international reputation for its imaginative approach to tackling media ethics issues through consultancies, projects and training, and employs media professionals with experience in all parts of the industry to deliver training.
Main tasks/previous experience relevant to those tasks
As a training and research organisation with numerous connections with journalists, the MediaWise Trust will organise the workshop for English-speaking citizen media-bloggers on MAS. Furthermore, it will be a main task of the British partner to develop and install an online platform for MAS in Europe. These tasks are in accordance with the organisation’s aims to improve quality standards of journalism.
Short profile of the staff member
Mike Jempson has been director of the MediaWise Trust since 1996. A journalist, author and trainer, with 35 years experience in print, broadcasting and public relations, Jempson provides the public voice of MediaWise, advises individuals and organisations with complaints about the media, and has devised and delivered training programmes and media literacy projects in more than 40 countries. He is also a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the University of the West of England, where MediaWise is now based, and has been Visiting Professor in Media Ethics at Lincoln University since 2006. He is Vice-chair of the Ethics Council of the National Union of Journalists (UK and Ireland). Among his numerous publications is ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed? Press complaints systems under scrutiny’.
Andy Channelle is a Senior Media instructor at the University of the West of England in Bristol (UK) where he specialises in journalism and technology. He also has journalistic experience and writes about open source software. Andy Channelle has recently published two technical books: ‘Beginning OpenOffice 3.0’ and and ‘Beginning Ubuntu’ (4th edition). Andy is interested in technology, journalism, open source development, social media and personal expression on the web.
