Deputy editor of Dan daily, Nikola Marković comments the trend of the large number of unsigned articles or articles signed with initials DE (Dan Editorial) dealing with crimes and accidents topics, organized crime, but also politics and economy. 

 

When it comes to the integrity of a media, there are several factors that affect its level and character. Analyzing public perception of Daily Dan several years ago, we noticed the fact that the readership and confidence are in great collision. The most of the public opinion researches conducted by the relevant research houses, in the period 2004-2011, showed that public confidence in Daily Dan was lower comparing to the sales reports. 

 

Since it is a daily paper pleading to be a serious informative newspaper, whose work is based on the respect of professional standards and ethical norms, it was very important to determine at least some of the reasons why the above-mentioned situation occurred.

 

Analyzing a large number of issues the first thing we noticed was the large number of unsigned articles or articles signed with initials DE (Dan Editorial). We noticed that in question were mainly articles dealing with crimes and accidents topics, organized crime, but also politics and economy. The reason for unsigned articles dealing with crimes, accidents and organized crime topics was not hard to comprehend. Unsigned articles in the field of politics and economy were the problem. In conversation with journalists, the editorial easily concluded that in certain cases, the issue was fear of journalists, but it was not the sole reason for unsigned articles. Dominant reason was journalists’ resistance to the method of editing by some editors and they did not want to stand, with their full name, behind such published information. It was not difficult to determine that this amount of depersonalized content created lack of trust among readers. It was clear that one of the primary indicators for the media (dis) integrity was number of these articles on a daily basis. 

 

Therefore, we increased the number of editorial consultations with journalists when it comes to processing of journalistic material and have introduced the practice – if an editor changes or equips text to a level a journalist does not agree with,  the editor stands as an article signatory. 

 

Very soon, it became obvious that by reducing the number of such articles we have achieved double effect. First, integrity of our media increases and second, personalized articles, signed by journalist or editors, increase individual responsibility and consequently, raise a level of professionalism.