First annex of the second order of the Governing

Board of the Media Council of Mongolia NGO, 2015

OPERATIONAL PROCEDURE

FOR MEDIA COUNCIL OF MONGOLIA

One. General Provisions

1.1. In accordance with the provision 6.1[1] of the Charter of Media Council of Mongolia NGO, the Media Council of Mongolia (Council hereinafter) will operate with a structure consisting of Governing Board, Ethics Committees[2] and Secretariat.

1.2. In accordance with the provision 6.7 of the Charter, this Charter will regulate Ethics Committees, Secretariat and the inter relations of these structural units.  

1.3. A member of the Governing body, a member of the Committees and the Secretariat have a right suggest a proposal regarding to an amendment to this procedure. The proposal of the member shall be discussed by the corresponding Ethics Committee and the consolidated proposal shall be presented to the Governing Board. 

Two. The Governing Board’ activities

2.1. The Governing Board shall perform under article 7 of the Council's Charter.

2.2. The Governing Board shall hold its meetings not less than three times in a year and make relevant decisions for ensuring the sustainable working performance of the Council.

2.3. The Governing Board shall provide/ensure the Council by independent and sustainable financing and implement related policy and regulations.

2.4. The Council is a non-profit organization and serves the public. Therefore, the Council shall publish its annual financial report and activities to the public.

2.5. The Governing Board will form a temporary committee with up to three members. The temporary Committee performs internal monitoring on activities of the Governing Board, Ethics Committees and the Secretariat. The temporary committee members can have different members depending on the situation.

2.6. The Governing Board will select an independent auditing organization. The auditing organization shall audit the Council's financial activities once in two years.

Three. Ethics Committees’ main activities

3.1. In order to fulfill a purpose mentioned in article 5.1 of the Council's Charter, the Committees' main activities are to form an ethics codes in the media sector by requiring to follow the Media Ethics Codes and journalists' professional standards.

3.2. Within its working scope, the following activities shall be implemented. It includes:

       3.2.1.  To approve and improve “Media Ethics Codes”;

       3.2.2.  To follow the “Complaint Procedure."[3]

3.3. The Committee shall discuss and make conclusions regarding the complaints submitted /hereinafter referred to as “complaint”/ by citizens or entities on journalistic reportings published by media organizations or journalists.  

Four. The Structure and Components of the Ethics Committees

4.1. An Ethics Committee shall implement necessary actions about a committee structure, members, elected terms, appointments, representing quotas, appointing, or dismissing members as stated in article 9 of the Council's Charter.

4.2. Ethics Committee consists of 30 members.  12 of them represent the group of owners of media organizations and employers, 12 of them the group of journalists. Six come from the group of initiators of Media Council of Mongolia.

4.3. Ethics Committees consists of representatives from press media (newspaper, journals/magazines), radio, television and local media organizations. There will be 3 members representing each type of media mentioned above from media organization owners and employers and 3 members representing journalists of each of these types.

4.4. Ethics Committees’ Chairmen shall annually report on the implementation of the committees' activities and the Complaint Procedure to the Council's Governing Board.  

4.5. Ethics Committees’ Chairmen shall annually report on the implementation of the committees' activities and the Complaint Procedure to the Council's Governing Board.

Five. The Ethics Committees’ activities

5.1. The Ethics Committee Chairmen shall responsible for announcing, organizing, leading meetings, or collecting members’ votes, or informing meeting decisions in accordance with consulting Executives. Further, the Chairman has a right to allow other members to speak during meetings.

5.2. The Ethics Committees' members shall responsible for following the ethics codes[4] in their activities.

5.3. The Ethics Committees shall discuss complaints received from citizens or entities regarding journalistic reporting. Thus, the Committees make a conclusion whether these journalist reportings of media organizations (broadcasting, print, and online media), which have editorial team, violated or not violated the Media Ethics Codes[5].

5.4. The complaint shall be considered as a request to determine whether Media Ethics Codes are violated or not.

5.5. The Ethics Committees shall make its decisions in written form and affirmed by the Chairmen’s signature.

5.6. The Council’s members (Board members, other Committee members, or the Secretariat staff) can attend the meetings as observers. The Council’s public relations officer shall attend the Ethics Committees’ meetings.

5.7. People who attended the Ethics Committees’ meetings shall keep the meeting information confidentially.

Six. Collecting the Ethics Committees’ meeting votes

6.1. The Committee Chairman shall request to collect vote on “whether a complaint has grounds or not."

6.2. If a number of "yes" votes are more than a number of "no" votes, that complaint shall be considered to have grounds.

6.3. Rejections shall be counted as equal to "no."

6.4. If "yes" and "no" votes equal, and it shall not count to the taken majority of votes.               

6.5. The Committee Chairman shall ensure every member’s active participation while discussing a complaint and notes on why they consider it is violated the Ethics Codes or not shall be taken.

6.6. In order to make the Committee meeting’ conclusions or decisions, it shall be verified by a discussion on each complaint and votes on each complaint.

6.7. The meeting decision shall be made by an absolute majority of members who participated in the meeting.

Seven. The Secretariat’s activities

7.1. Daily activities of the Council will be handled by the Secretariat. The Secretariat will consist of an executive director, a secretary, a lawyer and an accountant. A lawyer and an accountant can be non permanent contracted workers.

7.2. The Secretariat shall perform activities mentioned in article 5.2 of the Council's Charter.

7.3. An Executive Director shall fulfill duties mentioned in the article 10.1 or 10.2 of the Council's Charter, and be entitled to implement the full power mentioned in article 10.3.

7.4. An Executive Director shall sign in the Ethics Committees’ decisions, which will be delivered to parties, upon approval of the Ethics Committees’ Chairmen. 

7.5. An Executive Director shall manage to ensure implementations of the Media Council of Mongolia's Operational Procedure and Complaint Procedure, a process from receiving complaints until informing the public about decisions. Executive Director is responsible for giving interviews to the media regarding the Media Council's activities and complaint procedure. 

7.6. An ethics officer shall responsible for the following. It includes: to receive complaints which sent to the Council; to give a number of registration; to send an official notice to a defendant; to take a reply from an editorial team (defendant); to prepare introduction about complaint and related documents; to prepare issues to be discussed by Ethics Committees, in accordance with that, to send related documents to members in advance; to ensure organizational preparation of Ethics Committees’ meetings; to take and verify meeting notes; to inform the Ethics Committees’ members; to record and archive the Ethics Committees’ official documents; and to make working plan, reports and statistics about complaints.

7.7. A public relations officer shall responsible for the following. It includes: to prepare the Ethics Committees' resolutions and decisions; to prepare press release about the Ethics Committees' decisions; to prepare and make appeal, notice and requirements to the public depending on situations; to make quarterly online journal which introduce the Council’s activities to the public; to edit other written materials such as introductions, brochures or guidelines; and to develop and improve the Council’s website and social pages.

7.8. A secretary of the Secretariat shall responsible for the following. It includes: to ensure the Ethics Committees’ meeting preparation; to provide all kinds of technical assistance during meetings and ensure full functionality of meeting room and its equipment; to document and archive the Secretariat’s documents; to deliver announcements; to ensure participation; to check attendance; to prepare news in timely manner and to take photographs of events and document it.  

7.9. The accountant is responsible for the functions stated in Mongolian Finance and Accounting law and employment contract.

7.10. The lawyer is responsible for legal assistance to the members of the Council. He shall provide an assistance of advocacy, and if necessary shall represent the Council in front of a third party as requested by the Governing Board of the Media Council of Mongolia.

7.11. The Secretariat shall be responsible for reporting its activities quarterly to the Governing Board. Further, the Secretariat shall report statistics on its activities to the public.  

7.12. Financial report of the Media Council shall be audited yearly and published on a Media Council website.

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