{"id":371,"date":"2007-03-28T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-28T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/?p=371"},"modified":"2008-12-29T18:55:28","modified_gmt":"2008-12-29T18:55:28","slug":"the-best-line-on-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/2007\/03\/the-best-line-on-journalism\/","title":{"rendered":"The best line on journalism&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"drop_cap\">M<\/span>y old favourite professional aphorism is this: <span style=\"font-style: italic;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">a journalist\u2019s duty is to betray<\/span><\/span>. It neatly and bitterly encapsulates the moral, emotional and intellectual problems of reporting. But it\u2019s not a tag to be repeated with pride, more of a dirty industrial secret.<\/p>\n<p>Last night <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Mohamed Chebaro<\/span>, of <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.alarabiya.net\/English.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Al Arabiya<\/a> and a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.state.gov\/secretary\/rm\/2006\/60041.htm\" target=\"_blank\">veteran<\/a> of international news reporting, came up with my new favourite line: <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">a journalist\u2019s loyalty is to their information<\/span><\/span>. A major chord replaces a minor.<\/p>\n<p>Mohamed was speaking at a debate I was fortunate enough to chair at <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.city.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">City University<\/a> last night titled <a href=\"http:\/\/tully.syr.edu\/events_detail.cfm?event=8\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Journalism and the Middle East: Free Speech or Propaganda?<\/span><\/a> &#8211; an event made possible by a lady called <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" href=\"http:\/\/tully.syr.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joan Tully<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On the panel too:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>City\u2019s own Professor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.city.ac.uk\/journalism\/people\/faculty\/spurvis.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Stewart Purvis<\/span><\/a>, former <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">ITN<\/span> CEO and Editor-in-Chief and on the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/entertainment\/4964702.stm\" target=\"_blank\">inquiry<\/a> into <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">BBC<\/span> coverage of the Middle East<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.alibhai-brown.com\/about.php\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Yasmin Alibhai-Brown<\/span><\/a>, <span style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;\">Independent<\/span> columnist and writer <\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Richard_Gizbert\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Richard Gizbert<\/span><\/a>, late of <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">ABC News<\/span>, now hosting a media show on <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Al Jazeera English<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Students from City (some drawn from the region) and the <a href=\"http:\/\/newhouse.syr.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">Newhouse School<\/a> at <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Syracuse University<\/span> heard:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A strong endorsement of the positive role played by Israel\u2019s media in Israeli society from the Arab media<\/li>\n<li>An optimism about the role of journalism in opening up debate across the region<\/li>\n<li>An appreciation of the security threats to press freedom<\/li>\n<li>An awareness of the responsibility of the public to attend to reporting from the region<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And much, much more besides&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My old favourite professional aphorism is this: a journalist\u2019s duty is to betray. It neatly and bitterly encapsulates the moral, emotional and intellectual problems of reporting. But it\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[139,85],"class_list":["post-371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","tag-al-jazeera-english","tag-indie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2572,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371\/revisions\/2572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adrianmonck.com\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}