As England wrestles with the direction of press regulation and Canada studies the state of its press councils, the Columbia Journalism Review finds a success story in Scandinavia. There, complaints about the press seem to be handled with aplomb and applause.

The story focuses on the example of the mass murder last year in Norway and how the council dealt with complaints --- which in its case must be filed by a principal in the story, not a member of the public. But there are similar councils in Sweden, Denmark and Finland.

What it finds is that a strong council comprising journalists, editors and lay people compel the industry to take heed, change codes on occasion, and remain trusted by the public.
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The Columbia Journalism Review has written this week about a possible conflict for the Jerusalem bureau chief for The New York Times. Ethan Bronner is part of a speakers' bureau for Lone Star Communications, a public relations firm that also pitches him stories.

CJR suggests in the piece that Bronner has written about some of the firm's clients as part of his work. It argues that there is an appearance of a conflict in this case. His employer argues his work and speeches comply with its ethics guidelines, but CJR raises questions about this.

"Running the Jerusalem bureau for The New York Times is a tough job in a hypersensitive area, one that attracts more than its share of slings and arrows. So maybe it is best not to hand out extra arrows, as Ethan Bronner seems to have done," the CJR's Max Blumenthal writes.

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