Conseil de Presse Luxembourg

Description

The Conseil de Presse, or Press Council, is the umbrella self-regulatory body for the written press in Luxembourg. It was established by a law passed on 20 December 1979. That law recognised and protected the professional title of journalist. It followed an earlier introduction of state press subsidies in 1976, meant to prevent widespread newspaper closures.

The Council’s most visible function is issuing official press cards to journalists employed by Luxembourg media houses or working as freelancers. To qualify, they must earn most of their income from journalism and complete a two-year training period covering the code of ethics, authors’ rights, Luxembourg institutions and press law. Cards are granted by a Cards Committee made up equally of journalists and publishers, chaired by the Council’s president.

The Council’s plenary assembly is also equally composed of journalists and publishers. It has thirty to thirty-four members serving two-year terms, and it meets periodically to adopt the work of the Executive Board. The Executive Board consists of a president, general secretary, treasurer, two vice-presidents and three assessors, with the top offices alternating between the publishers’ and journalists’ groups.

Other bodies within the Council handle complaints from the public against media professionals, appeals over refused press cards, training for aspiring and established journalists, media literacy, and a youth journalism competition run with the Ministry of Education. The Council also acts as guardian of the code of ethics, giving every card-holding journalist a bound copy of the Press Code and Code of Ethics to sign for. The Council is based in Luxembourg City.