The Readers' Editor on the Media and Democracy in Modern Peru

I spent most of last week in Peru, at a conference in Lima titled Towards an Effective Self-regulation of the Media. One of its principal themes was the role of media ombudsmen, and apart from myself the speakers included Marcelo Beraba, the ombudsman of Fohla de Sao Paulo in Brazil, where the post was introduced in 1989, and Germán Rey, the former ombudsman of El Tiempo in Bogotá, Colombia, where Correcciones y rectificaciones is a regular feature.

All three of us are, or have been, associated with the Organisation of News Ombudsmen, the members of which demonstrate in an increasing number of cases in many parts of the world how it is possible to introduce this particular form of self-regulation unilaterally in an otherwise inhospitable or even hostile environment. Provided, we would all add, there is a strong philosophical commitment on the part of editors and owners.

The conference was timed to contribute to a public debate in Peru about the role of the country's media in building and sustaining a healthy and strong democracy. The difficulties were not minimised. The debate takes place against a background of corruption, ranging from, at its mildest, a rampant nepotism, through bribery and intimidation, to violence and murder.

Self-regulation, one speaker suggested, would have scant chance of survival in what he called a culture of impunity - with individuals, on the one hand, who were hardly touched by the law, and an unaccountable media on the other hand. Another speaker, making a similar point, spoke of the challenge to prevail in a country organised, as he put it, for inequality and injustice (a taxi driver pointed out the palace of injusticia with a grin).

If you consider that the media's first contribution to a democratic society should be to feed to its citizens a stream of reliable information, then in Peru, but of course not just in Peru, alarm bells are ringing. There is a very low level of trust in the media. A recent poll suggested that no more than 20% of the population are inclined to believe what they are told through their newspapers, radio and television.

But if there was a certain desperation hanging over the conference, there was an impressive determination and sense of opportunity. "We can defeat the notion that nothing can be changed in Peru," was the parting shot of one of the organisers. Indeed, attendance at the conference might itself be taken as a hopeful sign. Some 300 people attended the main session, a figure limited by the capacity of the hall. They represented all sections of Peruvian society, and all parts of the media. The opening of the conference coincided with the launch of a new newspaper in Lima, with an ombudsman, the country's first, already in place. Many are waiting to see how, or if, it works.

Part of my contribution to the conference was to urge delegates to encourage all news media organisations, as a first step, to introduce regular corrections, with or without the appointment of an ombudsman. Although the appointment of ombudsmen with the appropriate support and commitment might almost always prove to be a very good thing, it was not to be regarded as a panacea.

Such a role would, in the nature of things, be subject to numerous pressures and attempts to exploit or subvert it, not least because it will seem to some to offer an opportunity to "correct" a story to their advantage. To illustrate what I mean, here is a fictional example from Hasek's The Good Soldier Svejk (translated by Cecil Parrott), where Svejk, having recounted a story of drunken excess, explains: "It was immediately in the newspapers the day after. All you can do is to send a correction to the papers from gaol saying that the information published about you has nothing to do with you, and that you're no relative of the person of that name and have no connection with him. And you must write home and tell them to cut your correction out of the paper and keep it, so that you can read it when you've served out your sentence."

Attempts at subversion apart, the publication of corrections and the appointment of ombudsmen imply a recognition of responsibility towards society at large and an acceptance of a part in that society. To return to the organiser I quoted earlier, "The media have to learn to talk to citizens in this moving, changing society." The idea, there, or here, that the polls simply indicate an essential unpopularity is nonsense.

· The conference was arranged jointly by a number of organisations, including the British Council in Lima, who paid Ian Mayes's expenses.