The Media: There and Here, Then and Now, Good and Not-So-Good By Patricia J. Pereira-Sethi devika...@yahoo.com
I am not here to lecture the Goan journalist about the profession because I lived out my career in the US, 20 years at *Newsweek* magazine in New York in various positions covering correspondent, editor and United Nations Bureau Chief, and those conditions are not necessarily what you face in India. Besides even when the American press is crunching itself into a snug economic situation, the Indian press, especially the vernacular one, is vibrant, alive, effervescent -- and expanding. And it can teach the Yankee a great deal as a result. What I can place before you is my concept of the Perfect Journalist and you can build from that. The Perfect Journalist, as I know it, is one who has respect for, and tries to abide by, the cardinal virtues which Plato discusses in his *Republic*: * Wisdom, which gives direction to moral life and is the rational, intellectual base for any ethical system. * Courage, which is needed to resist the many temptations that come your way. Be they in the form of attention, cash and gifts from people in power and position. It behooves you to keep a certain distance, for fear of losing your moral compass. * Temperance, the virtue that demands reasonable moderation, harmony and proportion in all our work, helping us avoid leaning towards exaggerated preferences, both right or left -- tendencies which turn us into fanatics and obsessive extremists. * Justice in covering all sections of society with a modicum of equality, sensitivity and decency. * Truth which is a combination of all the above. A succinct statement of our mission is to seek the truth and report it as objectively as possible. No matter how insulting the jibes we receive that we are not doing our job right. Or the subtle and overt threats by members of various parties to silence us, as is evident in the run up to the elections. An American editor of mine at *Newsweek* once advised me that when all sides of the spectrum attacked my reporting, I had to be doing something correct. This was in reference to anger expressed by right-wing elements about my interview with Cuba's Fidel Castro, and the left wing regarding my interview with Chile's General Augusto Pinochet. Both the right and the left accused me of being "soft" during my interviews. I was merely being straightforward and honest, no partisan politics here. Journalists also have to be accountable. We have an obligation to explain our decisions and to correct our errors. That is how we will protect our name, our by-line, our profession, our publication. And not diminish it. We cannot believe we are untouchable or view ourselves as prima-donnas, super-important, larger-than-life characters like a few journalists have morphed into. Egos have to be tamped down. The fact that our name appears in print, or our face on the small screen, doesn't give us the right to believe we are superior beings. All that I have said is theoretical, easier said than done. In actual fact, a journalist normally writes the way he thinks, and his reporting will be nuanced by his psychological, physical and cultural orientations. He could well be medley of orientations, and one will usually dominate at any given moment. If in Goa, he could be writing from the Goan point of view, the Catholic, Hindu or Muslim point of view, the scientist or economist's point of view. As long as tunnel vision does not take hold with a vengeance, and he is not pushing an agenda for vested interests, he is doing just fine. I would like to add a few comments about journalism in India today. For one thing, I find there is a lack of consistency and persistence. There is rarely the continuation of a story. Very little follow up. It hits the front pages or breaking news headlines and bam! it moves off the front burner. There is media hysteria for a day or a week and then kaput, it is gone with the wind. No one really knows what happened to Raju of Satyam who fleeced the world of millions; no one knows what transpired with the IAS couple who siphoned off Rs 400 crores from the coffers of the various states where they were stationed. No one knows what ensued with regards to the Pune-based billionaire and his huge and inexplicable Swiss bank accounts plus his unpaid taxes. We could try to institute a system where one person is assigned to watch over a particular story, alongside his other tasks. And he can follow and feed on it until closure. The other element I find distressing is that of embarrassingly poor copy in terms of spelling and grammatical errors. This clearly implies poor editing and proofreading. We have an obligation to be correct and precise in any language we are writing in. Spelling bus 'fares' as bus 'fairs' is simply unacceptable copy. The concept of Paid News is even more disturbing. It should be anathema to anyone who lives in a democracy: the fourth estate is an important constitutional guardian of the people's rights. Corporate ownership of the media creates a vast potential for misuse. Look at the havoc that Rupert Murdoch has created in our industry. Bottom lines cannot be the raison d'etre -- for that comes at the expense of objectivity and the defence of the citizen. A code of ethical principles must always be the anchor and underlying bedrock. The task of the managing editor is to maintain a finely tuned balance between his reporters' objectivity and the owners' business interests. I recall a report during the last elections in Goa when, if you read a certain paper, you were given to believe that the hands-down winner in a particular constituency was Candidate A. It turned out to be just the opposite: Candidate B won. My driver, who has more electoral savvy than most, advised me that Candidate B would win. He had his ear effectively to the ground, his hand was better placed on the political pulse. The questions which remained in my head for a long time thereafter were: had the journalist plain miscalculated? Was he expressing his own personal desire and conviction? Was he using his privileged platform to indirectly encourage citizens to vote for his preferred candidate by presenting him as a sure shot winner? Or had the reporter been compromised with cash or gifts? These are some of my comments and I hope you will receive them as honestly and sincerely as they are proposed and presented. -- Patricia J. Pereira-Sethi has worked for major publications globally, at the United Nations and elsewhere, and has interviewed some of the leading political figures of the time. This talk was presented at a function held in Goa, India in early March 2014. The entire recording of this event is here https://archive.org/details/con-journ The original title of the talk was Conscientious Journalism: My Take For more community audio recordings from Goa, visit https://archive.org/details/goa1556 Goanet Reader is compiled and edited by Frederick Noronha. Send submissions to f...@goa-india.org