Article,
Trust Me - I'm an Ombudsman
British Journalism Review, 15 (2): 65-70 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0956474804046018
Abstract
To mark the annual conference of the Organisation of News Ombudsmen, The Guardian's readers' editor stresses the independence of his role and asks: "Why hasn't the idea moved faster and farther? After all, it has been around for almost half a century. Crises such as the Jayson Blair affair at The New York Times and that involving Andrew Gilligan at the BBC have focused minds. The New York Times, although it has been an assiduous corrector for years, had always resisted the idea of having an ombudsman. In the words of its former executive editor Joe Lelyveld, "We are the ombudsmen." It has now, post-Blair, appointed one. The BBC is also rethinking its system for responding to complaints. Alan Rusbridger, whose idea it was to introduce an ombudsman to The Guardian, keeps making the point that in the rapidly changing media environment trust is becoming more important than ever."
