Once again, the media in Bangladesh has been criticised by top government leaders. First, the information minister expressed his discontent over the media’s excesses. He claimed the media looks quite unfair when the journalists try to get reactions from the grieving relatives of a person or persons killed in disasters or accidents.
Yes, the minister is right to a great extent. There have been moments when we journalists didn’t think whether it was okay to talk to the people who might be grieving a death, lying wounded in the hospital. Questions can be raised on such actions of ours in the past.
Then the prime minister herself commented that there was a need for broadcasting policies for Bangladesh media (especially for the electronic media). She claimed some journalists haven’t been providing accurate information while writing their news stories. Both the prime minister and the information minister claimed that the media in Bangladesh was enjoying its freedom.
Well, I agree with the first part of the minister’s and the prime minister’s statements, but what they claim about the media being free may not be all that true. Being able to do interviews without thinking, and writing news stories without proper attribution, and the government not preventing them from doing that don’t actually mean that the media is free. In doing that, the media men, sometimes, aren’t following the ethics of journalism.
To my mind, the reason behind this practice is, perhaps, the absence of editorial policies or guidelines in the media organisations in this country. What editorial policy does, is explain how the journalists should select and review their own work. It also distinguishes advertising and sponsored content from editorial content, how financial or other influences from outside our company affect the organisations.
Fairness is one of the most important elements that journalists need to adopt in their work. Fairness ensures transparency in news gathering, reporting, and other content creation and share the reasons for important editorial and programming choices. Fairness also protects the editorial process from the fact and appearance of undue influence and setting careful boundaries between contributors and content creators.
If we have any editorial guidelines, like many renowned media organisations in the world, the journalists, for that matter all content creators, would be bound to follow those guidelines. For example, a guideline would equip us to be able to build trust as independent, impartial, and honest media workers.
It would allow us to establish the truth of what has happened, and our commitment to achieve due accuracy in all our output. The BBC editorial guidelines, for example, say: “Accuracy is not simply a matter of getting facts right; when necessary, we will weigh relevant facts and information to get at the truth. Our output, as appropriate to its subject and nature, will be well-sourced, based on sound evidence, thoroughly tested, and presented in clear, precise language. We will strive to be honest and open about what we don’t know and avoid unfounded speculation.”
An editorial policy can also teach us how to deal with children, the physically and mentally challenged, as well as wounded persons. The journalists do aim to reflect the world as it is, but they must balance their right to broadcast innovative and challenging content with the responsibility to protect the vulnerable from harm and avoid unjustifiable offence. It would also create an awareness on how to uphold public interest, how to respect privacy without infringing on it without good reason.
Side by side with having a written editorial policy, a particular media organisation, perhaps, may do well by monitoring whether its journalists are actually following it. Monitoring would consolidate the impact of having a policy in place. At the same time, in-house trainings, in the light of the editorial guidelines might do wonders for a media organisation. Training would certainly minimise the risks of making mistakes while reporting.
When the minister says “the media looks quite unfair,” in some situations, he has many reasons to comment like that. We journalists have many a time hemmed and hawed while performing our duty in the past. Having an editorial guideline doesn’t mean that it would limit freedom or openness. It would actually make us more equipped to be free in a responsible manner, the way our audience visualises us to be.
