The news media is a pillar of democracy: it informs citizens about issues in the public interest and acts as a watchdog over the powers that be. Consequently, journalism plays a significant role in emerging democracies.

To play this role effectively, however, news media need to stand out as credible and respected sources, and to be credible they need to be accountable. As highlighted in Tunis at the WAN-IFRA Arab Free Press Forum, after years of propaganda, it is difficult for newly-free publications to establish themselves as trustworthy sources of news, particularly when facing competition from blogs and social media.

Ethics are a cornerstone for a credible and professional news media environment. As reported by BusinessGhana, media practitioners and associations in the Cote d'Ivoire recently adopted a new code of ethics for journalists at a forum in Abidjan.

While new technology has changed just about everything when it comes to newspapers, some aspects persist. One of them is the regrettable presence of errors - they used to exist in print, and now they occur also online.

Thanks to technology, however, there are new tools that help combat mistakes in reporting. Writing for Poynter, Craig Silverman examined how the New York Times keeps track of - and reacts to - errors on its pages and website.

Thanks to an internal database that the Times uses to track errors and corrections, the paper noticed that articles by one of its freelancers were being corrected increasingly often. This allowed it to investigate the issue - and eventually to find a solution.

What the Times discovered was that the writer in question was being commissioned by several desks and was, probably, overworked. This resulted in a spike in errors. Thus, the paper cut back the number of assignments, and correspondingly the accuracy of the freelancer's reporting improved.

The case of the freelancer was one of the aspects that Arthur Brisbane, the Public Editor of the New York Times discussed in his column, which discusses the issue of errors and corrections at the paper and in the press in general.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum have welcomed Ecuador President Rafael Correa's decision to pardon the executives and former opinion editor of the El Universo newspaper, but said the charges and conviction should never have occurred in the first place.

"We are delighted that President Correa has decided to issue a pardon, but the charges should never have been issued and the Ecuadorean courts should never have levied jail sentences and a US$40 million fine," the global organisations said in a statement.

"We are also pleased that the president has decided to withdraw a separate suit against Juan Carlos Calderón and Christian Zurita, two journalists who were ordered to pay US$2 million," the statement said. "Jail sentences and excessive fines have a chilling effect on the press and violate all standards of freedom of expression. We call on the president to ensure that Ecuador reforms its libel laws to conform with international standards."

Ecuador's National Court of Justice earlier this month upheld a libel judgment, a 40 million dollar fine and 3-year prison sentences against El Universo and its directors Carlos, César and Nicolas Pérez. Two of them fled the country, while a third took refuge in the Panamanian Embassy in Quito.

What do we want? In-depth journalism! When do we want it? Now!

Two reporters have responded to this rallying cry and have announced their intention to launch a new online technology magazine dedicated to long-form, quality journalism.

Jim Giles, who has written for Nature, The Atlantic, The Economist and New Scientist, and Bobbie Johnson, European editor for GigaOm and a previous tech reporter for The Guardian, created the project, which has been named Matter.

So why does Matter matter? According to a blog post by the new team, the idea is to foster thorough, long-form journalism rather than the "fast and cheap" reporting the web has encouraged so far. In a video introducing the project, Giles spells out the problem bluntly: "The thing about long-form, in-depth journalism is that it's expensive. There used to be many more newspapers and magazines that produced that kind of content, but journalism is in financial trouble and those outlets have cut back."

For the rest of this article please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com

Following the bankruptcy of its publisher Mediapubli, Spanish daily Público announced that it would put out its final print edition yesterday, Sunday. Although the paper's website público.es will continue to operate, Cadena SER estimates that 130 of Público's 160 staff will lose their jobs.

Mediapubli declared bankruptcy at the beginning of January, and was given around a month to come up with enough funds to make Público economically viable. But although majority shareholder Jaume Roures sought investors in Mexico, Venezuela and Ecuador, the company was unable to come up with the necessary sum of around 9 million euros.

For more on this story please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com

The Huffington Post UK has launched a new 'Inspiration' section on its site which will enable brands "to communicate directly with prospective consumers via video, blogs and social media," announced a press release from AOL.

Its first focus is a cross-platform package in conjunction with other AOL properties to promote Iceland as a year-round tourist destination. As the press release says, the 'Inspired by Iceland' campaign, sponsored by Promote Iceland and Iceland's government, is "the first Europe- wide marketing campaign that fully integrates a comprehensive suite of AOL advertising products, content and platforms."

There are other posts on the page that are unrelated to the Iceland effort, and HuffPost UK editor-in-chief Carla Buzasi said that the Inspiration section is dedicated to "all things inspirational." Food will be a theme over the next few days, then careers and lifestyle, with participation from both HuffPo's journalists and bloggers.

The New York Times announced in a press release today that it has teamed up with Chinese publisher Shanghai Zhenwen Advertising Co., Ltd. to launch a monthly science magazine. Science Times China, as the magazine is called, is written in Chinese and sold in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and other large Chinese cities.

The press release suggests that the bulk of the magazine will consist of articles already published by the Times in English. Material will be take from the weekly science section of the Times, as well as from other relevant sections published by the Times newspaper and by nytimes.com. However, the Times will also incorporate some local Chinese content, while still retaining full editorial control over the new publication.

For more on this story please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com

Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Rémi Ochlik were killed by shelling in the Syrian city of Homs today, reports the New York Times. The Guardian notes that David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Rupert Murdoch, among others, have paid tribute to Colvin, a veteran war reporter.

Mozilla has announced that it will be launching a cross-platform app store later this year. Submissions should be open next week at the Mobile World Congress, TechCrunch reports

The Washington Post has published a graph which it says shows the future both of advertising and of media. The graph compares the amount of time consumers spend on different platforms with the ad spend per media and demonstrates that ad spending on web and mobile is small in proportion to customer interest.

The Chicago News Cooperative announced officially today that it will be suspending its contributions to The New York Times. As of next Sunday, the Chicago organisation will no longer submit articles to The New York Times Midwest pages or to its website.

In a blog post announcing the change, CNC's CEO and editor James O'Shea writes that he takes "full responsibility for this situation". He laments that "unlike similar start-up efforts like the Texas Tribune in Austin, the Bay Citizen in San Francisco and ProPublica in New York, we never recruited the kind of seven figure donations from people of means concerned about the declining quality of news coverage around the country."

For more on this story please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com

A team of eight journalists has created a local news cooperative to tackle the closure of the traditional media in their South Wales town of Port Talbot, and to continue to provide community's news coverage (hat tip to the Guardian's Roy Greenslade.)

After Trinity Mirror's Port Talbot Guardian, the community radio station and the local council freesheet all closed down, this group of volunteer journalists launched the Port Talbot Magnet, a local news site which carries news sourced by professional journalists and members of the community, as NUJ Freelance bulletin reported.

Port Talbot Magnet is a not-for-profit community based on a cooperative principle: volunteer professional journalists collaborate with citizens who suggest, participate and fund coverage on local news.

It incorporates a 'Pitch-In' scheme, with members of the community contributing by donating money, suggesting ideas, sending pictures and helping to pay professional reporters to carry out the news coverage.

The underlying idea is that news has a price and it's worth it to the community to pay for it as it it adds value to their lives.

The Sun has announced that it will be launching a new Sunday edition this weekend.

"The Sun's future can now be reshaped as a unique seven-day proposition in both print and digital," stated Sun editor Dominic Mohan in an article discussing the launch. "Our readers' reaction to the announcement of a seventh-day Sun has been huge and we won't let them down."

For the rest of this story, please see our sister publication www.sfnblog.com