Outwards

The ombudsman handles readers' complaints and comments, some of which are addressed directly to him and some of which arrive from editors to who these were addressed.

Complaints come from readers who feel hurt by something published in the paper, or who believe that the paper is wrong about something. The common complaints claim a prejudice to their reputation; an invasion of privacy; ethical offenses (for instance, failure to seek the reaction of the subject of a story, or publishing an abridged reaction); factual or interpretation errors; inaccuracies and improper balance in coverage, or what readers usually term lack of objectivity.

The acute political polarization prevailing in Israel, with the people divided more or less 50-50 into a political right and a political left, constantly leading heated debates on questions of peace and the territories, entails an avalanche of political complaints. That is, numerous complaints bear on the positions expressed in the paper, be it in editorials or in various articles by columnists, as well as in stories and news items which seem to some readers unbalanced and politically biased.

Handling such complaints is particularly difficult, as most of them do not really pertain to the ombudsman, whose role is definitely not censoring opinions in any way. It is difficult, however, to reason with such readers who are sometimes carried away by their ideological zeal to the point of saying: whoever does not think like me (or like the camp I adhere to) is a traitor, and publishing his ideas should be forbidden.

Let me say, in parentheses, that the majority of political complaints comes from right-wing people and are addressed against left-wing writers. The right in Israel, as a rule, is more millitant and reacts more, including reactions to what is published in the press.

Inwards

Every morning I review the day's issue of the paper. Due to the short time at my disposal, I review mostly the news pages. I then write a comments report, which includes criticism of mistakes and misguided considerations, as well as praise for scoops, well-founded considerations, presentation, attractive graphics or photograpy. I also draw a comparison between our own stories and those of the main competitor.

This report is circulated to the paper's senior editors and to those in the news section, and is discussed in the daily meeting of the news' editors, which we hold every day at 11 a.m. I usually participate in the meeting, which opens with a short discussion of the day's copy. Later on I send messages to the writers and editors who erred in writing or in editing, whether in regard to language or to the subject matter.

The nature of my message, varying from an observation to a serious reprimand, depends on the seriousness of the mistake and on the frequency of the mistakes committed by the same employee (these are recorded on a daily basis). Here too, when an employee has erred several times, he will be handled by those in charge of him and, in the most serious cases, sanctions would be applied. However, when a young editor or writer is involved, and I notice that he is repeating his mistakes and displaying a lack of knowledge in fields in which he is expected to know more, I summon him for a talk and some guidance.

Once a week I make a point of reviewing another part of the paper -- the economic section, the sports section, the daily magazine, etc. In these cases I do not write a report, but rather make my observations to the editors and writers, as the need arises.

An additional internal occupation which I have volunteered to undertake, and which is specific to my term as ombudsman, is an attempt to improve language usage in the paper. Every few days I circulate two or three corrections of common language mistakes. All of these are stored in an assigned basket in the computer, accessible to everyone for the purpose of reading and studying but unassignable. We are thereby gradually creating an applied dictionary of correct words and expressions for use by the journalists.

I must say this initiative met with great enthusiasm of the employees, and without any prior intention to do so I have come to be considered as a high authority in matters of the Hebrew language, addressed by employees every day.

Avraham Tirosh is ombudsman for MAARIV in Tel-Aviv, Israel.