In recent years, scientific interest in public sector accountability mechanisms has increased (e.g. Mulgan, 2000; Bovens, 2007; Schillemans, 2008). At the same time, public service organizations and political actors are increasingly put under pressure in their interaction with mass media, especially during incidents (Mazzoleni and Schulz, 1999; Besley & Burgess, 2001; Cook, 2005; Yankova, 2006). Many academic and practitioner commentators have suggested, often with anecdotal evidence, that media incidents have a large impact on formal accountability processes, yet the ways in which this occurs have not been investigated systematically. To uncover the issue, comparative, in-depth case studies have been carried out on the effects of media incidents on the accountability of public sector organizations at arm’s-length distance from central government in the Netherlands and in Australia. In this paper attention will be paid to the effects of media incidents on external (to formal holders of accountability, such as government departments) accountability relations in the Netherlands. The paper will draw on insights in the operation of accountability mechanisms as well as communication studies and answer the question whether and how mediatized incidents affect the accountability mechanisms of public sector organizations. The paper will elucidate that the media are indeed an important external factor that impinge upon inter-organizational accountability processes, yet the effects of media incidents are equivocal; in some cases pushing organizations towards risk aversion while in some other cases pushing for more aggressive strategies of government by publicity (Cook, 2005). Keywords: mediatized incidents, public organizations, accountability
