Readers’ Advocates or Newspapers’ Ambassadors? : Newspaper Ombudsmen in the Netherlands
Newspaper Ombudsmen in the Netherlands

<jats:p> At the beginning of the 21st century, politicians, scholars and journalists want news media to be more accountable and transparent. The newspaper ombudsman is often considered an example of an accountability mechanism. Similarly to Japan, the US and elsewhere, newspapers in the Netherlands have introduced this function in the newsroom. A questionnaire and open-ended interviews with Dutch ombudsmen showed two different views of the function: on the one hand, they see themselves as the ‘readers’ advocate’, whose loyalty lies with the reader; on the other hand, they are the ‘paper’s ambassador’, who defends the paper’s interests. The ombudsman can be seen as an accountability mechanism, or as a way to strengthen the newspaper’s relationship with its readers. </jats:p>