However, it is the courts that mainly settle conflicts as the public has no other course of action in the event of excesses. Professional practices of the media Due to a generally inadequate professional training, technical standards are not always adhered to. Events are treated in a largely superficial manner. In some cases, newspapers settle for information leaked to them instead of making their own investigation. Scientific information in particular is of little interest. Recruitment and staff promotion are dependent on relationships, often political, ones, especially in the public media. There is greater competition in the private media. Self-censorship is common practice. The private media attend carefully to big advertisers. The public media is mainly beleaguered by political pressure. Finally, there are sensitive issues such as security, religious and cultural taboos. Beside self-censorship, media owners interfere with the independence of journalists. Corruption is also common. This has caused a relation of distrust between media and its consumers. Working conditions of the media Salary levels of journalists are generally considered as low: an average of 560 dollars a month. There are some, who, however, receive up to 2,000 dollars whereas salaries of other journalists do not exceed 140 dollars. In comparison, an inexperienced secondary school teacher earns between 280 and 340 dollars compared to 560 for a lecturer in higher education. About only a third of active journalists received pre-service training. However there is actually a school of journalism in Algeria since 1964, which offers a journalistic training programme in Arabic. Certain media outlets, including the public broadcaster, offer in-service training sessions. Organisations of journalists Very few journalists are union members (between 5 and 10%). The existing union was weakened by internal divisions. However, a new association, the National Federation of Algerian Journalists (FNJA), was created on 28 May 2009. 10 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ALGERIA 2009