The Hindu : National : “Journalists have a major responsibility and must audit themselves”

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Monday, May 19, 2008
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“Journalists have a major responsibility and must audit themselves”

T. Ramakrishnan

Lindsay Ross

CHENNAI: As journalists have the ability to change history, they carry a major responsibility and must therefore be scrupulous in auditing themselves, according to Lindsay Ross, executive director of the Commonwealth Press Union.

Journalists must have the attitude of responsibility, and must understand the necessity of verifying facts and maintaining standards, Ms. Ross, who visited The Hindu on Saturday, said.

Noting that “self-regulation is possibly more appropriate in a more mature press,” she said India had the potential of an ideal environment for self-regulation. One of the problems in the country was that there was a degree of complacency about press freedom. After the Emergency of the 1970s, when press censorship was in force, the younger generation of journalists had a pretty easy time. “When you have relative freedom for a long time, it is very easy to fall into the trap of complacency. The most important thing for a journalist is responsibility. Without that, we are nothing.”

When complacency sets in, there will be a cavalier attitude. So, “it is absolutely imperative for every journalist to self-analyse and self-reflect on a regular basis.”

On whether self-regulation was the key to protecting freedom, Ms. Ross said, “If we take responsibility for our action not only individually but also collectively, we are inevitably bound to address most of the press freedom issues that come up because most press freedom issues are caused by lack of understanding of the boundaries of working.”

On the United Kingdom’s experience of the code of practice for journalists, she said the code was written in the contract of every journalist in the U.K. It had been “extraordinarily effective.”

Talking of the Press Complaints Commission in the U.K., she said it came about after the failure of the statutory press council. It was established as a form of self-regulation by the press industry. The PCC was funded entirely by the industry.

Referring to her organisation’s regional seminars on self-regulation in the early 2000s, she said the seminars were attended by editors, publishers, academics and lawyers. They were fairly positive to the concept. But, it became apparent over the next few years that in many countries, they could not sustain it because they did not have a sufficiently large press.

On the advisability of having a uniform code for the press and the electronic media, she said it was very hard to write such a code for the two mediums. There would have to be distinct codes. But, the two could come up with their codes individually and bring them together so that each side was aware of the other.

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