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. There have been several attempts to establish a self-regulatory media council over the past ten years but they never materialised due to the polarisation of the media community between private and state-owned institutions and a lack of funds. In 2009, professionals from both public and private media met to finally establish a media council. The meeting elected an Organising Committee which reports to the Organising Assembly, comprising all signatories to a founding document, so far 90 percent of all media houses in the country. The media council will develop a code of ethics and establish a mechanism for members of the public to lodge complaints against the media in cases where they feel they have been treated unfairly or a story was inaccurate. Discussions are still ongoing with the government on the issue of funding. This might be prejudiced with the coming into force of the Charities and Societies Proclamation which prohibits foreign funding for advocacy groups. The organising committee is looking at the possibility of securing outside funding, in addition to local funds, to make the council sustainable. Government gave up its attempt to set up a statutory regulatory body with the enactment of the Freedom of the Mass Media and Access to Information Proclamation in 2009, following the commitment of the media to take up the task of regulation themselves. Some private media houses have their own code of ethics and mechanism to address complaints from the public. They publish corrections when this is found by the editors to be “appropriate”. The “right of reply or correction” is also provided for in article 40 of the Freedom of the Mass Media and Access to Information Proclamation. 50 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ETHIOPIA 2010