Media Compliance System
Script error: No such module "AfC submission catcheck". Media Compliance System Based on a comprehensive analysis of the crisis state of Russian media, in 2014 a group of authors formulated original proposals (Kazan Initiative) for the introduction of modern international standards of corporate culture - compliance methods - to force media corporations to conduct business ethically. The authors (Boris Panteleev, Yuri Tsagarelli, Irina Volynets and others) are sure that the priority of self-regulation over censorship should be an axiom, but the responsibility for implementing the self-regulation system should be shifted from a weak automatized journalistic community to large financially wealthy Internet companies and media holdings. What is compliance? Compliance means accordance with the requirements that the company (print media, television channel or Internet portal) itself stated in its statutory activities. First of all, these are corporate codes of ethics, the adoption of which the company undertakes to comply with the principles of fair competition, without violating the law. Or in other words, not giving bribes in the broadest sense of the term for the property gain. Today, this area of corporate culture has been even more updated in connection with Russia's accession to the WTO, the aggravation of information wars and the fact that large firms have become indifferent to their reputation, because in order to maintain and develop international ties, successfully sell shares on exchanges around the world, raise the value of their brand, it is necessary to have a reputation as a bona fide businessman, an ethically impeccable partner and a subject of business relations.
Moreover, even in the Civil Code of Russia from March 1, 2013, the first article was significantly corrected, which now states that "no one has the right to derive any advantage from his unscrupulous behavior." This means that the pursuit of a highly questionable rating should now be limited to certain specific moral ethical self-restrictions, which are necessarily introduced and cultivated at each firm for the funds and forces of the employees of this firm itself. This is not state censorship, but corporate culture and internal self-regulation of the journalistic community in this particular team. And it is especially important from the point of view of society, consumers and human rights defenders that the perennial vicious circle of total irresponsibility of large and rich media tycoons is breaking. It turns out that the main responsibility for the ethical conduct of business is finally transferred from forced dependent journalists to independent, responsible and wealthy leaders of this media business. Now they themselves will have to make every decision based on what they see their own reputation as bona fide businessmen - if they want to play by these new rules, they can play, can flourish, can make a profit. If they violate these rules, then from a position of the Supreme Arbitration Court of Russia from now on all profit got as a result of them "unfair behavior" has to be withdrawn from these companies in favor of the victims which can and will file the corresponding complaints, claims. That is, all those numerous journalistic ethical codes that have long existed, but are obviously not in effect today, will receive real content and a clear material interest in their application. Therefore, if we interpret this approach from the point of view of the fundamental foundations of human rights and the fundamental interests of the journalistic community itself, it is this principle that should be the basis of a new mechanism for attesting journalists, without state intervention, but through their own newly created internal corporate compliance services.
Numerous methods of combating the causes and consequences of corruption allow each country to adapt and use precisely those that correspond to national specificities. In some cases, understanding the scale of the problem and the complexity of the fight against bribery at the state level, international business enters the fight. This is not so much about corporate social responsibility, but about significant material sanctions that risk bribery, understood in a very broad sense, to companies for the corruption practices of their units around the world. The leading "controllers" of the activities of their companies abroad still remain the UK and the USA. It was in these countries that the law on corruption practices abroad (US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 1977) and the law on bribery (UK Bribery Act, 2011) were developed. The fines stipulated by these laws reach tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars. Moreover, the UK Bribery Act actually obliges companies to take measures aimed at detecting and combating corruption and actively cooperate with regulatory authorities. In the same vein, in recent years, relevant laws have been updated in other countries - Germany, Austria, Canada and to some extent in Russia. THE PROPOSED CONCEPT MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO ESTABLISH DOMESTIC PRIORITY IN THIS AREA. Another innovation is the non-existent until recently article 19.28 in the Code of Administrative Offenses (Administrative Code of the Russian Federation) "Illegal remuneration on behalf of a legal entity." Now, not only an official, but also a business owner is responsible for giving or receiving a bribe (before that there was only a corresponding punishment of an individual under the criminal code). The amounts of fines are impressive: a fine for a bribe on an especially large scale (part 3 of this article) is charged in 100 times the amount of this illegal enrichment plus confiscation of the amount of the bribe, while the minimum amount of the fine is 100,000,000 rubles! That is, for "denim" (custom, secretly paid materials) now the media concern will have to fork out a full program. And this means that the legal mechanism to which we refer, speaking of new technologies in content control, has recently been concluded within Russian law.
Since the media business has long ceased to limit its activities to state borders, after a series of high-profile lawsuits and colossal fines, the issue of preventing corruption risks in other countries has become especially acute. International companies began to develop internal rules and procedures, obliging their divisions around the world to follow them. Such a preventive policy - compliance - literally translates as bringing into line with the requirements, has already begun to gradually take root in the Russian business environment. Modern compliance practice has two key components, each of which performs its own functions. Firstly, it is preventing corruption, countering the laundering of money obtained by criminal means, and preventing fraudulent transactions with the company's resources and embezzlement of funds. To implement these tasks, companies develop a range of internal documents, policies and procedures. Most international corporations, for example, have separate hotlines that allow you to report a violation of the code of ethics by company employees, including executives, by phone or e-mail. There are internal rules that establish restrictions on the delivery of gifts to public servants, rules for hospitality, procedures for coordinating charitable contributions, etc. Special attention is paid to checking the reputation of business partners, distributors, contractors, intermediaries and agents who provide companies with various kinds of services. Such procedures are aimed at identifying hidden risks when corruption acts are disguised as quasi-legal consulting services, marketing research or excessively high resale prices. The second component is presented by internal inspections and investigations to identify and prevent violations of the company's code of ethics. As a result of such investigations and inspections, the business controls itself, thereby contributing to the eradication of corruption, violation of environmental standards, fair competition principles and other violations of corporate rules. As a result of investigations, staff members found to have acted improperly are usually dismissed, and investigation materials can be transferred to law enforcement agencies. It is clear that the application of internal policies and procedures requires the creation of ethical standards, proper familiarization of employees with the provisions of internal documents and monitoring their implementation. Transnational corporations create entire departments, recruiting staff responsible for developing and implementing compliance policies, training staff, and conducting internal audits and investigations to identify and prevent violations of the company's code of ethics. In recent years, world compliance practice has significantly stepped forward. There is reason to argue that it is time for media tycoons to restore the honest name of the journalist and popular trust in the media. And those who unleashed and waged information wars, made their capital, using journalists as a bargaining chip, who dishonored and humiliated the journalistic community, should also invest in this difficult and slow process. Today, the fact that many of the major media outlets not only have foreign partners, but are also officially legally registered not in Russia, and even issue shares that are traded on the largest world platforms, becomes qualitatively new. Many of the authoritative Russian media are very closely connected with international business, and some, such as RT, Sputnik are specially created for active work on a foreign audience. One way or another, they (the Russian media) will now have to comply with international standards of corporate culture and Russian law in this area in order to maintain their reputation and win new markets, because for some of them unethical behavior can obviously affect the drop in quotations on exchanges, and for some - to cause deliberately losing lawsuits from outraged consumers and an insulted audience. Compliance of technology in media will contribute to the production of a product favorable to society and the creation of a system of self-control of participants in this sphere in three areas, which are already recognized and known today. The first is an ecological clean information field, the second is bona fide competition in the field of media, the third is combating corruption in the media. Thus, it is necessary to be ready for the fact that the scientific developments and the original interpretation of the standards of traditional compliance proposed by Russian authors will soon become the main lever of positive change and an integral part of business culture for all Russian companies, including Internet media giants.
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