Nassau, Bahamas - Remarks by Hon. Dr
Hubert Minnis, M.P.
Leader of Her Majesty’s
Loyal Opposition
Political Communications
Class
The College of The
Bahamas
on March 19, 2015:
First of all, I thank you students, faculty
and The College of The Bahamas for inviting me to speak to you today. I am happy
to do so, because what our country needs urgently is more bright young minds
and good writers. Now, more than ever,
we need people of integrity and courage to join the ranks of our better
journalists. It is a challenging role, but some of you will surely fill it and
perform it with grace.
Secondly, I congratulate you for choosing a profession
that is essential, but will make you a target of attacks. At times, you will discover or see things that
will take you out of your comfort zone. In
some respects choosing to be a journalist worthy of the name, you will make you
an outsider. In fact, you risk becoming
just like a politician in opposition who dares to question the policies of
those in power.
But there is another face of journalism and
the mass media. I’m sure you have heard
about the power structure of the Middle Ages—the clergy, the nobility and the
commoners, who represented, in order of power and prominence, the First, Second
and Third Estates of the Realm. With the
invention of movable type first in China and then in Europe came mass media. With its ability to spread information not
just to those who dominated society, but to commoners, this phenomenon came to
be called the Fourth Estate. And your
professional field is powerful indeed. It
has launched revolutions and set and taken down governments. Above all, it has held the reins of democracy.
This is what I want to focus on today.
With all their inherent power, journalism
and the media have not always lived up to the glories of their potential. You can tell by the way that journalism has
bad-mouthed by some of the brightest writers and some of the top members of the
profession over the past century and a half.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I believe in
equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.”
“History is just journalism and you know how
reliable that is.” ― Joseph Campbell .
And what does it say about the quality of
journalism and the reading public, if Hillary Clinton can say, “If I want to
knock a story off the front page, I just change my hairstyle.”
Journalist, activist and author Hunter S.
Thompson say even worse: “With the possible exception of things like box
scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as
Objective Journalism. The phrase itself
is a pompous contradiction in terms.”
And famed American author Norman Mailer
completely condemns the profession: “If a person is not talented enough to be a
novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to
perform operations, he becomes a journalist.”
We have to ask what caused this profession
to acquire such a bad rap. It has much
to do with ethics or a lack of it. It
has a lot to do with one of two choices journalists make.
1.
Some choose to become faceless hacks who
tread water or hide away, not willing to attract notice to themselves. Such people never want to raise any waves. They want to be liked by everyone and never
have to deal with the question of ethics.
2.
Others
choose out and out corruption and are unworthy of the profession.
The actions of a corrupt journalist are like
those of a frog in heat. Corrupt
journalist do a lot of jumping—
jumping the gun, jumping
to conclusions and certainly jumping on a bandwagon and choosing partisanship.
They will spend a lot of time redacting and
expurgating. That is, they do their best
to remove information that might offend people, especially people to whom they
owe favours. They spend a lot of time directing
their copy to please a side, appeal to popular trends or to appease some
powerful individual or faction to keep on their good side.
If you choose this road, you’ll find
yourself on some bandwagon, running from truth and the facts like a bad dream
or going with the flow because it’s too hard to fight the current. You can count on being a very bad journalist,
if you go so far as to plagiarize or deny, twist or delete provable facts to
make yourself look good or win awards. There
has just been too much of that lately. We
have seen too many high-profile, internationally recognized journalists who
have been caught cooking facts. Worse still, you could be one of those who tie
truth to the size of the payroll.
Unfortunately, there is payback somewhere
along the line. It may not have 7.5 percent VAT attached, but it will still
cost more than you will be willing to give up.
That brings me to choice number 3, which is
in complete opposition to the first two: You can choose to be a good journalist. To describe this fine professional, I am
relying on the four principles of ethical journalist as promoted by the Society
of Professional Journalists (SPJ):
1.
Seek Truth and Report It
2.
Minimize Harm
3.
Act Independently
4.
Be Accountable and Transparent
The SPJ has described some of the behaviours
on which these four pillars rest. I have
chosen just a few of them and summarized in some cases. These are values and behaviours that should
not be compromised or neglected, if you wish to bring honour to your profession
and yourself:
Journalists should:
– Take responsibility for the accuracy of
their work. Verify information before
releasing it. Use original sources
whenever possible.
– Take special care not to misrepresent or oversimplify.
– Gather, update and correct information throughout the life of a news story. This means keep digging.
– Don’t make promises you can’t or have no intention of keeping.
– Identify sources clearly. The public
is entitled to as much information as possible to judge the reliability and
motivations of sources.
– Reserve anonymity for sources who may face danger, retribution or other harm,
and have information that cannot be obtained elsewhere.
– Diligently seek subjects of news coverage to allow them to respond to criticism
or allegations of wrongdoing.
– Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless.
– Support the open and civil exchange of views.
– Recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and
government. Seek to ensure that the
public’s business is conducted in the open, and that public records are open to
all.
– Avoid stereotyping.
– Never deliberately distort facts or context
– Never plagiarize. Always attribute.
To minimize harm, you should:
– Balance the public’s need for information
against potential harm or discomfort. Pursuit of the news is not a license for
arrogance or undue intrusiveness.
– Show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage. Use heightened sensitivity when dealing with
juveniles, victims of sex crimes, and sources or subjects who are inexperienced
or unable to give consent. Consider
cultural differences in approach and treatment.
– Weigh the consequences of publishing or broadcasting personal information.
– Balance a suspect’s right to a fair trial with the public’s right to know. Consider the implications of identifying
criminal suspects before they face legal charges.
To act independently, you should:
– Avoid conflicts of interest, real or
perceived. Disclose unavoidable
conflicts.
– Refuse gifts, favours, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid
political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or
impartiality, or may damage credibility.
– Be wary of sources offering information for favours or money; do not pay for
access to news.
– Deny favoured treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special
interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.
To be accountable and transparent, you should:
– Respond quickly to questions about
accuracy, clarity and fairness.
– Acknowledge mistakes and correct them promptly and prominently. Explain corrections and clarifications
carefully and clearly.
That brings me to choice number 4. You can
choose to be a professional Bahamian journalist, who understands that our
homeland is a developing country and your obligation to contribute to its
honourable and rewarding development. Recognize
that there really is power in the pen. When
used by the corrupt, that power can tear down and destroy. When wielded by men and women of integrity,
the pen can build a new world. With a
pen dedicated to truth, you can help to build a Bahamas where governance is
transparent. You can build a democracy
that is strong and enduring, a democracy that is truly for the people by the
people. You can help to build a world where human rights are upheld. How do you achieve this position of strength?
I suggest you build on the foundation of the ethical principles and behaviours
I just shared.
Now the question is—how can you contribute
to building a better Bahamian society and economy? You can help to hold government’s feet to the
fire to deliver on promises made to the people or, at least, admit that the
promises they made were empty. Start
with memorizing and holding dear all the ethical behaviour promoted by the SPJ.
Every journalist dedicated to building
this country or any other country has that obligation. Every Bahamian should consider building our
country and rebuilding community ethics as articles of faith.
I propose that you never be afraid to ask
the hard questions. We all need to ask the hard questions—Ask about Bank of The
Bahamas, which has been the victim either of poor management at best or corruption
at worst. If we believe that The Bahamas
needs to do more about ensuring food security, journalists need to ask the hard
questions about BAMSI. Ask until the
contradictory stories give way to the truth about that important facility. Ask so that BAMSI is organized and supported
properly to accomplish real advances. I
assure you that, in many cases, getting to the truth is often harder than
climbing Mount Everest. The truth is often
buried under personal agendas, red herrings and lies. Ask the hard questions about the citizenship
referendum and about BEC that is consuming so much of our money as taxpayers
without any advances to show for it. It
is the right and obligation of every citizen of this country to challenge the
wanton treading on our rights and future. This is true democracy.
As journalists, you have the potential to
ransom and revive truth by committing the best of your talents as currency. You can and must encourage others to buy-in by
your demonstration of honesty, depth of research and careful reporting. I warn that it will not be easy. In fact, at times getting to that point will
be like crossing the Tongue of the Ocean from Nassau to Andros. You will be swimming in deep, predator-filled water
without a safety boat following. Nevertheless,
fight on. You have a country to build. Together, we and all Bahamians of goodwill can
create a better place to live in, a place where we no longer live in constant
fear of becoming victims of out-of-control crime and endless paying without
getting value for money. This is a matter of survival for us. Pledge never to sell out your birthright to
this land. By your education and
training you have the power to effect change, but you need the catalyst of
will.
In the final analysis, you will have the
potential to wield incredible power as a journalist. Someone called John Grogan says it so well: “In
the English language, it all comes down to this: Twenty-six letters, when
combined correctly, can create magic. Twenty
-six letters form the foundation of a free, informed society.”