Two news articles piqued my interest recently. One was about Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil commenting on how the government handles and treats members of the media, the other was about veteran journalist A Kadir Jasin saying that journalists must keep power at arm’s length.
In a nutshell, Fahmi was responding to critics who say the government is trying to control the media. He said they do not want to do so, and the situation is much better than it was before this government took over.
The minister even made a tongue-in-cheek comment that they provide massage chairs for reporters.
Following this, Kadir said that journalists cannot get too comfortable with the leaders in power because it could influence and undermine their ability to be critical or analytical when the time comes. They need to keep the government at arm’s length to stay objective.
This brings us to the importance of objectivity in journalism.
Many, including Kadir, believe this is needed as journalists should not take sides while reporting so that all perspectives are thoroughly explored and presented.
I believe this too, to a certain degree. Objectivity is very important when it comes to reporting hard news and in-depth analysis. A news organisation is credible when it’s impartial and presents facts from all points of view.
However, I believe that transparency, honesty and responsibility play a much more important role in journalism, especially in this day and age.
No such thing as real objectivity
We have to accept the fact that real and literal objectivity is impossible to achieve because we are all human beings with feelings and opinions.
Whenever we report and produce news content, we make decisions. We decide who to interview, what questions to ask, which answers to use, and what words to tell the story with.
All these choices cannot be made with total objectivity. Every decision we make will be influenced. The most we can claim is the perception of objectivity.
So, rather than just offering a perception, I think we should just acknowledge that we are not objective. We aren’t so naive as to think that all news organisations are, right?
Depending on who the owners, shareholders and stakeholders are, no news organisation can claim total objectivity.
So own the fact that news organisations can be right-wing, left-wing, liberal, conservative, commercially influenced, politically influenced or anything in between.
The important thing is to be transparent about it and be responsible and honest when reporting news and current affairs.
I think it is okay to find a suitable angle for a news story or even have it be skewed towards a certain leaning. Just don’t make up facts. Most people already realise this, they are intelligent and aware enough to suss this out and make their own decisions and conclusions.
This also means that it is important to have a vibrant news industry with a variety of news organisations.
When there is diversity, there will also be more options for people to obtain their news and information. If all these news organisations are transparent and honest, people can be more informed.
Media literacy
People should also be taught media literacy so they can consume news and the media properly.
They need to be taught about lateral consumption of the media so that they don’t blindly accept everything without thought.
Times are changing fast, and everything is developing in different ways. So it is important that both the news industry and society change as well.
We must not continue to think that news is just like it was 30 years ago, when there were only a handful of news organisations.
During those olden times, people didn't have many choices to get their news and information. So it was important that the very few news organisations that existed had to be objective. Whether they were or not is a totally different story, but you all know what I mean.
In conclusion, both journalists and the news industry, as well as the people, need to be responsible enough to change themselves.
Only then can we develop a mature fourth estate in our democracy. I am confident that this will happen. In fact, I think it is already happening. So we’ll wait and see. - Mkini
ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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