SECTOR 4 The media practice high levels of professional standards. 4.1 The media follow voluntary codes of professional standards, which are enforced by self-regulatory bodies that deal with complaints from the public. he journalist association in Benin has had a code of conduct since 1999 which it started on its own initiative. he Media Council (Observatoire de la Déontologie et de l’Ethique dans les Médias, ODEM) is there to guarantee this code. hough it is not a court it receives complaints from citizens, processes them and makes inal decisions that are published in the media, including the one in question. hough its sanctions seem to be only on moral grounds, it is beginning to assume legal proportions especially as judges consider the decisions of ODEM before giving their inal judgment. Due to its credibility ODEM is contacted by both citizens and authorities to settle issues that border on ethics and conduct. he case that the panelists found to be most remarkable is when the Minister of the Interior had to contact ODEM. As more people have given much value to ODEM’s decisions, HAAC decided to establish an ethics and conduct commission to “handle” the growing power of ODEM. Since this commission is a high ranking department of HAAC it has had to join the general public in automatically punishing papers whose decisions had been taken by ODEM. What is important is that all the sanctions that were imposed on each media house are taken into account when their yearly permit is being renewed. his is why any media house that accumulates up to three sanctions loses the possible aid it could be given. In addition to that, a media house will not be given a seat at HAAC if it has been sanctioned twice by the regulatory body. As a result, all those who are interested in running for elections or beneiting from the assistance that is given to the media take seriously any invitation from ODEM. he procedure is simple. When there is a complaint, the letter is sent to the concerned paper, who is asked to respond within three days or else ODEM will be obliged to decide the outcome. In cases of very evident violation, ODEM can also take up the issue on its own accord (an example is the case of the Togolese branch when some journalists took money from President Gnassingbe Eyadema, or the case of a journalist, who plagiarized documents before wining the Lorenzo Nattali Prize). 116 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER BENIN 2011