This morning, I had a discussion from one of the senior editors at a prominent Radio station here in Uganda. The discussion was about whether journalists should be neutral or not. I was basing my self on one of the newspaper editors in Germany who insisted that journalists are not supposed to be neutral. As much as she received a lot of disagreements from my class (Summer Academy Class 2008), she still stood her ground.
Now when this Senior Uganda Editor was telling me, I asked him whether it was what he received from his University Professors or any where in the books.
His response was thus “Lauben, things have changed ever since, the world is revolving very first, so what you read twenty years ago may not apply”
Although the Germany Senior Editor and the Ugandan Senior Editor seemed to share something in common, I still believe as Journalists, we owe our society neutrality.
Lauben Matsiko
Uganda
4 responses so far ↓
1 Danilo Arao // Sep 29, 2008 at 3:18 am
Thank you for this post. I think your German professor is right, disagreements with her point notwithstanding.
As a journalism professor in the Philippines, I usually tell my students that we owe our society OBJECTIVITY, not neutrality.
There is a difference between the two. To be objective, one must get all possible sides to a story. As you know, this is very important in journalism because we want to give sufficient information to the people so that they can form their own opinions on pressing issues and concerns.
Neutrality, on the other hand, means not taking a stand. This is a tall order for journalists who need to analyze data to provide information. And in analyzing data, one cannot help but take sides as he or she chooses the appropriate framework.
There is clearly a difference between data and information. The word “data” refers to “observable reality” while “information” means making sense of the data by analyzing them. To use a mathematical equation to illustrate my point, INFORMATION = DATA + ANALYSIS.
There is a saying in the Philippines where I am based that “neutrality is a stand by itself, a stand in support of the status quo.” Our country was under dictatorial rule from 1972 to 1986 where media had been suppressed. At present, there are still attempts by some of our officials to harass and intimidate journalists, even to the point of killing them.
This would explain why some journalists in the Philippines have a different take on neutrality in journalism, even if I admit that there are textbooks that still advocate this.
I hope this helps. All the best!
2 Lauben Matsiko // Sep 29, 2008 at 10:04 am
Professor Danilo
That’s a better understanding of it, I went to the Summer Academy sponsored by Inwent, in the same class with me was a colleague from Philippines, every time we discussed about Media freedom in the world she would bring about that dictatorial regime in your country as an example.
Thank you once again
3 Lauben Matsiko // Sep 30, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Professor Danilo
Do you mind if we exchanged mails? Mine is muhumuzaml@yahoo.com
4 Danilo Arao // Oct 2, 2008 at 2:35 am
Lauben
My email address is dannyarao@yahoo.com. All the best!
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