1. Reading [is] a supplementary job requirement. 2. [Journalism graduates]...seem to be out of touch with reality and the main problems of life in the real world, and attach greater importance to self-promotion than to the profession and innate ability. 3. The best news is not always the news that is obtained first, but very often is the news that is best presented. 4. Virtue...demanded of them curiosity regarding life itself. 5. Newsrooms have become aseptic laboratories where people toil in isolation. 6. The editor who was a compassionate sage in times gone by barely has the energy or the time to keep up with the punishing pace imposed by technology. 7. Reporting, which we always considered to be the most prestigious genre,...requires more time, more research, more reflection, and superb writing skills. Reporting is, in reality, a meticulous and accurate reconstruction of facts. In other words, it is the news in its entirety, as events actually occurred, presented in a way to make the reader feel as though he actually witnessed them. 8. The excessive use of quotation marks in statements, either false or true, provides an opening for innocent or deliberate mistakes, malicious distortions, and venomous misrepresentations, which give the news the force of a deadly weapon. 9. (Related to 8) Quotations from sources that are entirely credible, from persons who are generally well-informed, from senior officials who request anonymity, or from observers who know everything but are never seen, make it possible for all kinds of offenses to go unpunished. 10. The voice of truth is...the journalist who witnessed an event [not] the interviewee who provided a statement. 11. Assign priority to aptitude and vocation. 12. All journalists must, by definition, be research-oriented. 13. Ethical standards must be the constant companion of every journalist. 14. Journalism is an unappeasable passion that can be assimilated and humanised only through stark confrontation with reality. No one who does not have this in his blood can comprehend its magnetic hold, which is fuelled by the unpredictability of life. No one who has not had this experience can begin to grasp the extraordinary excitement stirred by the news, the sheer elation created by the first fruits of an endeavour, and the moral devastation wreaked by failure. No one who was not born for this and is not prepared to live for this and this only can cling to a profession that is so incomprehensible and consuming, where work ends after each news run, with seeming finality, only to start afresh with even greater intensity the very next moment, not granting a moment of peace.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 18:02:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015