Problems of Law and Ethics in the regional periodical press of Lithuania (2000-2010)

Research problem can be broadly formulated as the expression of the norms of law and ethics in the field of media accountability system. It is a very broad field of research involving internal and external factors of the media body – among them the organisational culture of the publishers and editors, principles of journalistic work, interaction of the media body with the external users and so on. The object of the work – the legal and ethical violations by Lithuanian regional and local periodical press editorial offices in 2000–2010. The goal of the work – to establish the adherence to the legal and ethical norms by Lithuanian regional and local public information media and to identify what has influence on it. Research methodology. This investigation is based on the theory of social responsibility and accountability of mass media. It is designed using the model of media accountability system created by a French scientist C. J. Bertrand, which is presented in the theoretical part in more detail. The following research methods were used in the dissertation work: logical, comparative and complex source analysis, critical descriptive and analitycal method, as well as the sociological and system research methods, content analysis, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, descriptive statistics, analitical review of court practice. The scientific novelty, theoretical significance and practical use of the dissertation. The novelty of the work consists of the exploration of legal and ethical aspects of regional and local periodical press in 2000–2010. This is the first research of its kind. The author discusses research context and points out functional and normative aspects of the regulatory and self-regulatory institutions of the public information media. A comparative analysis of the norms expressed in the Code of Ethics of Lithuanian Journalists and Publishers and the Law on the Provision of Information to the Public, the analytical review of the decisions made by the Commission of Journalists and Publishers Ethics on the activity or regional media editorial offices, the analytical review of the court practice regarding regional periodical press formed during the first decade of the 21st century – are presented by the author for the first time. The theoretical and practical novelty also consists of a sociological survey of the staff from 120 regional and local newspapers’ editorial offices. The main red line unites the components of the media accountability system as outlined in the works by C. J. Bertrand in the questionnaire. This survey enabled the author to formulate and test the hypotheses and draw the conclusions that can be applied by Lithuanian journalist in developing the principles of accountable media