Too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing
In India, the recent horrific deaths of Jogendra Singh
(in Uttar Pradesh), and Sandeep Kothari and Akshay Singh (Madhya Pradesh) are
only reflective of how unsafe the country has become for journalists who dare.
Jogendra Singh, in a declaration made before a judicial officer shortly before
he died, identified his assailants and charged they had carried out the attack
on behalf of a local government minister. Clearly, investigative journalism is
a risky venture these days and if your work antagonises people (those in power)
within and outside government, then you are in dangerous territory. Yes, too
much knowledge can be a dangerous thing for journalists.
Trends in Newsrooms 2015, the annual report published by
the World Editors Forum, lists ‘source protection erosion’ as the rising threat
to investigative journalism. It used to be possible to promise
confidentiality to sources – guaranteeing the protection of their identities,
even on pain of jail – in countries where legal source protection frameworks
were robust. But these protections are being undercut by government surveillance and data retention policies,
and it may no longer be ethically possible to promise confidentiality. These
developments have an enormous impact on investigative journalism and are giving
rise to increasing attention to risk assessment, self-protection and source
education, says the report.
It was quite by coincidence that I chanced upon a report
in the PressGazette, UK, stating that parents in the UK would rather their
daughter marry a banker, marketer or teacher than a journalist. The article by
William Turvill refers to a Yougov Survey which found that 3 per cent of 1756
UK adults would like their prospective son-in-law to be a journalist. Women
journalists (as prospective daughters-in-law) fared slightly better, with a 4
per cent score. However, the rankings fell way short of other professions. The
most popular son-in-law profession was doctor (38 per cent), followed by lawyer
(24 per cent) and architect (23 per cent). Even teacher (15 per cent),
entrepreneur (11 per cent), banker, musician (both 6 per cent), and nurse,
soldier, athlete (all 5 per cent) ranked higher. Doctor was also the most
popular choice of profession for daughters-in-law (35 per cent), followed by
teacher (26 per cent), lawyer (24 per cent), nurse (16 per cent) and architect
(14 per cent). So, is there a story here? Is it because journalists are losing
jobs and are considered rolling stones, because journalism has become
dangerous, or because people are slowly losing trust in the media? Perhaps it’s
a combination of all this and more.
Trust. Which brings me to the BBC’s annual review. The
report shows that BBC News has “yet to fully recover from the scandals of 2012
in terms of perceptions of trust from the public… Audiences continued
to rate BBC News much more highly than other news providers, although
perceptions of trust in BBC News have not returned to the record levels of
2012.” BBC still scored with 53 per cent for “impartiality of news”.
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