My old favourite professional aphorism is this: a journalist’s duty is to betray. It neatly and bitterly encapsulates the moral, emotional and intellectual problems of reporting. But it’s not a tag to be repeated with pride, more of a dirty industrial secret.
Last night Mohamed Chebaro, of Al Arabiya and a veteran of international news reporting, came up with my new favourite line: a journalist’s loyalty is to their information. A major chord replaces a minor.
Mohamed was speaking at a debate I was fortunate enough to chair at City University last night titled Journalism and the Middle East: Free Speech or Propaganda? – an event made possible by a lady called Joan Tully.
On the panel too:
- City’s own Professor Stewart Purvis, former ITN CEO and Editor-in-Chief and on the inquiry into BBC coverage of the Middle East
- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Independent columnist and writer
- Richard Gizbert, late of ABC News, now hosting a media show on Al Jazeera English
Students from City (some drawn from the region) and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University heard:
- A strong endorsement of the positive role played by Israel’s media in Israeli society from the Arab media
- An optimism about the role of journalism in opening up debate across the region
- An appreciation of the security threats to press freedom
- An awareness of the responsibility of the public to attend to reporting from the region
And much, much more besides…
One response to “The best line on journalism…”
Hello Adrian,
I have just discovered your blog…
the lecture was really good, I disagreed with many things Richard Gizbert said though…..
City should organise many more events like this!