Help Desk
Find answers to your questions here.
1.1 What is the goal of the JTI?
The Journalism Trust Initiative helps build a healthier information space by:
- Helping consumers, advertisers, distributors and regulators to identify and reward trustworthy journalism;
- Incentivizing media outlets to perfect their internal processes;
- Delivering a transparent, standards-based system to help defund and deplatform disinformation.
1.2 Who can use the JTI?
The main users of the JTI are news media outlets. They self-assess their editorial processes and increase their transparency. The general public also benefits from an improved news ecosystem. Other stakeholders, like regulators and the private sector (advertisers, distributors and digital platforms) might use the JTI to improve their own interaction with journalism.
1.3 Who is behind the JTI?
The JTI was started by, and is owned and operated by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a non-governmental press-freedom watchdog and human rights advocacy group. The launch was supported by a number of key partners, such as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Agence France Presse (AFP), plus numerous other contributors.
More information can be found in the ‘About’ section of this website.
1.4 How is JTI being funded?
The funding for the project development was provided through a grant of the French Ministry of Culture.
Craig Newmark Philanthropies made a substantial gift to cover the implementation of the JTI.
Additional co-funding was received from the European Commission and the International Organisation of the Francophonie.
Some features of the JTI web application are paid-for services on a subscription basis. These revenues are being used to support the operational cost, as the overall Initiative remains strictly not-for-profit.
More detailed information about the funding and funders is available on the ‘About’ page of this website.
1.5 Why did you chose the instrument of standard setting?
We believe that professional criteria for the trustworthiness of news media should be defined, governed and implemented by the journalistic community and no one else. Industry standards match that objective as their main principle is self-regulatory as opposed to a regulatory solution that comes via laws created by a government. Another reason is the widely tested and scalable nature of ISO-sanctioned standards, and the inclusiveness, authoritativeness and legitimacy associated with it.
1.6 Could the JTI have a negative impact or unintended consequences, for example limiting press freedom? How do you prevent that?
The purpose of the JTI is to support the freedoms of expression and the press by rewarding compliance with professional norms and best practices of journalism. We have conducted a thorough risk assessment in advance. You can find it in Annex A of the Standard document that includes guidelines for different types of users in order to prevent, detect and mitigate potential misuse. The ‘JTI’ brand is legally protected.
1.7 Is the JTI exiting editorial quidelines or self-regulatory structures, like pPress Councils?
No. The JTI is fully complementary, as it adds a voluntary and independent compliance level to those existing processes. It can be used by Media Outlets internally as an additional diagnostic tool, and by external bodies such as Press Councils or Regulatory Authorities to support them in performing their duties.
1.8 How does the JTI fit into digital policies and the call for regulating big tech companies?
We believe that suppression of harmful or illegal content online, and the subsequent sanctioning of malicious actors, is not enough to secure the safe functioning of our common information space. In parallel, trustworthy journalism deserves to be rewarded with a competitive advantage in terms of discoverability, leading to elevated reach and revenues.
The JTI caters to this objective very practically by providing the relevant datasets in real time and a machine-readable way. Legal obligations for digital platforms (mostly search engines and social media) to facilitate ‘due prominence’ of trustworthy sources could be stipulated by law with a reference to self-regulatory standards such as the JTI as a benchmark.
Glossary Index
A
Accountability: The act of the media outlet declaring its governing principles and how it is to be held responsible for adhering to them. (see Preamble for more about the key principles of ethical journalism)
Advertiser: An entity paying a media outlet for publication of commercial messages designed to drive consumer activity.
Advertising: Any commercial messages provided by an advertiser designed to reach an audience to drive consumer activity.
Audience: Those people who do, or could potentially, read, watch, listen or otherwise consume the content of a media outlet.
B
Best Practices: A document for employees of a media outlet to illustrate for them the steps, methods, and processes of producing content.
Brand Name: A publication identifier meant to be used by media outlets as the way of signifying the origin of the content to the content consumer.
Board of Directors: The group of people who manage a legal entity with the authority given to them by the larger group of direct owners.
C
Complaint: The message of a comment from someone in the audience of a media outlet wishing to voice a concern, correction or other possible change to any content.
Conflicts of Interest: Any situation where a person or an organization has financial, political or other motivations that may be either helped or harmed by their involvement with another person or organization. For this document, the concern is most specifically with motivations of anyone involved in the ownership of a media outlet or in the production of any content.
Conforming Entities: For all of the Journalism Trust Initiative, the media outlet. (See “IV. Terms and Definitions” in the section “‘Media Outlet’ – the Conforming Entity”.)
Content: All information published by a media outlet that is not Advertising. This may include articles, audio or video recordings, etc.
D
Data Collection: The act of a website gathering data on members of an audience.
Direct Owner: A person or corporation that has possession of all or part of a Legal Entity. This may be through direct corporate ownership, stock ownership, or any other means.
E
Editorial Mission Statement: A document created by a media outlet that sets out the principles, values, and overall objectives behind the generation of the published Content.
Editorial Guidelines : A document created or used by a media outlet that sets out the essential guidelines and rules for all employees and freelancers to abide by when producing content. It can also include enforcement mechanisms and sanctions.
Employee: A part of the paid staff of the media outlet or the legal entity. Combined with freelancers, these are the people publish the content.
Eyewitness News: A form of user generated content. (note that this term is a common brand name for many ABC broadcast news stations in the United States)
F
Fairness: For political content especially, but in general for everything published by a legal entity, the notion that the audience will get a complete and balanced view of any topic from the media outlet. (see Preamble for more about the key principles of ethical journalism)
Fairness Doctrine: Specifically in the U.S., a former law that required licensed broadcasters to present content in ways that exhibited political balance. Eliminated in 1987.
Founding Date: The year in which a Legal Entity was initially organized and established.
Freelance: Anyone involved in the creation of content that is not a regular employee of the legal entity.
I
Impartiality: The attempt to achieve fairness in content of distinct points of view with objectivity and dedication to truth. (see Preamble for more about the key principles of ethical journalism)
Independence: Freedom of a media outlet from external control by governments or any other outside entity. (see Preamble for more about the key principles of ethical journalism)
Individual Journalist: A media outlet that has only one person as the Content creator. Also known as One-person enterprise.
Indirect Owner: A person or corporation that has possession of all or part of a Legal Entity by way of ownership of a holding company or other organization that is itself a Direct Owner.
J
Journalism: The gathering, production and dissemination of information in a framework of ethical values.
L
Legal Entity: The corporation or other body organized under locally applicable laws for the purpose of publishing under a brand name or names. The media outlet works as a part of this.
Listener: Part of an Audience.
M
Media Outlet: Any publication using one or more brand names that produces content for consumption by an audience of readers, viewers, etc.
N
N/A: “Not Applicable” used as an answer when a question has a mandatory response that does not have an applicable answer in that particular instance.
News Agency: Any service that provides content to a media outlet.
Newsroom: In general, the physical location of the media outlet, especially the central place where the content is produced.
O
Objectivity: The pursuit of journalism for the sake of the audience and not for the goals of one person, organization or any particular point of view. (see Preamble for more about the key principles of ethical journalism)
Ombudsman: The non-gender-neutral version of ombudsperson. Not used in this document.
Ombudsperson: A representative of the audience who ideally has complete independence to express opinions about content without threat of interference. May be employed by the media outlet. May be called a Readers Editor or a Viewers/Listeners’ Advocate.
One-person enterprise: > see see individual journalist
Opinion: Content that typically gives the views of the creator and does not adhere as closely to the goals of objectivity or impartiality. While no news content can be totally objective, and no commentary is devoid of facts, in general, opinions are designed to persuade or entertain rather than to inform. The JTI Standard require that the difference be made clear to the audience.
P
Post-publication: Editorial control, or in some cases, an absence of editorial control, of content that happens after publication, most typically of user generated content. (see pre-publication)
Pre-publication: Editorial control of content that happens before publication. (see Post-publication)
Privacy: Being free from public observation. In general, members of the public have certain (but not unlimited) rights to privacy that media outlets work to protect in balance with the goal of informing the public. (see Preamble for more about the key principles of ethical journalism)
Pseudonym: A name used in the place of the real name of a person in editorial content, typically for disclosed safety reasons.
Public Money: Funding provided by the general public of a distinct governmental boundary, in some cases through a separately imposed license fee, mandated or direct donations, or through subsidies from the state.
R
Reader: A member of the audience.
Responsible Editor: Person legally responsible for editorial content. For example, this is a legally defined position in Sweden.
Revenue: The total amount of money received by a legal entity.
S
Shareholder: An individual or organization that has some ownership stake in a legal entity.
Social Media: Platforms that structure and distribute content created by users, media outlets, or others on the Internet and track the behaviour of all users.
Sources: People who provide information to media outlets.
Sponsored Content: In whatever form, content that in some way is funded by an organization outside the media outlet.
Stakeholder: Any person or organization with a financial or other interest in a topic.
State: A unit of government.
T
Transparency: In journalism, the notion that any potential conflicts of interest and other background information that may be of interest to is disclosed. (see Preamble for more about the key principles of ethical journalism)
Turnover: (mainly British) The total revenue from all sources of income for an organization.
U
UGC/User generated content: Content published in any way by a media outlet that originated from the public or the audience and was not generated by employees or freelancers.
URL: “Uniform Resource Locator” The web address for a brand name publication. For example, www.bbc.co.uk is the URL for the BBC.
V
Viewer: A member of an audience.
