Vaz and the press

Ian Boyne, Contributor

If Information Minister Daryl Vaz did speak abusively and used expletives in expressing his disgust to Christene King over her newspaper's reports on him, then his action should be roundly condemned by all decent persons, including our 'chief servant'.

And to have done so during national Journalism Week would be even more contemptible and lamentable - from an information minister no less. People with political power should not be without emotional power and psychological restraint. But I was not in Montego Bay when the incident took place and the minister has stoutly denied any such abuse, saying there were witnesses to confirm that he did no such thing. Both the minister and the journalist have filed complaints to the Press Association of Jamaica which, presumably, will be carrying out an investigation.

But we should not have to await the PAJ's investigation. If both Mr Vaz and Miss King say there were witnesses to the encounter, then why has no media house simply called those witnesses to ascertain what really happened? Why has no media house carried out its own investigation? That's a newsworthy story. And it's not as hard in ferreting out as those dumped WikiLeaks cables which created a furore in the United States and elsewhere last week. It's a simple story which should be easily pursued. Have people been contacted and have refused to speak? Well, if they won't speak to the media, even on condition of anonymity, then how will they be willing to speak to PAJ investigators?

crucial issues

The unfortunate incident between the politician and the journalist gives us an excellent opportunity, on the back of Journalism Week, to discuss some crucial issues about the roles and responsibilities of media - and the rights of citizens, including public figures.

The minister has charged that the Sunday Herald, where Miss King is acting managing director, has expressed bias and malice toward him and his party colleagues, and has been unprofessional and irresponsible in its reportage. He has claimed that the Herald has broken one of the most fundamental and well-established rules of professional journalism: To give the right of reply or response to the subject of the story being pursued before it is published or broadcast. It is the convention that a person be contacted to get his side of the story when charges are being made against him. If those attempts fail, it is the standard practice that that fact be revealed in the story.

The Sunday Herald has been carrying a number of unfavourable stories about this Government and its ministers. But that is not impeachable in itself. It is the responsibility, indeed, the duty, of an independent, free press to put the searchlight on the Government and to reveal all the dirt and corruption it can unearth. An important aspect of the media's role is to be adversarial to government - to highlight what it is doing wrong, how it is abusing power and the people's resources and how it is betraying the people's trust - once it has evidence of that. That is a laudable goal and no newspaper or media house should make any apology for that.

no established mechanism

But what if a media house is demonstrably irresponsible, unprofessional, grossly unfair and politically biased? What recourse does the offended have? Well, in Jamaica, they can write a letter to the editor! Or bellyache on a talk-show or, perhaps, write to the PAJ, which almost no one does because it has no established, formal mechanism to deal with press complaints. The Press Association of Jamaica has been talking interminably about creating a press council, a press-complaints body, which could investigate charges of unprofessional conduct in media but, to date, the association, like the politicians it criticises, is still making promises.

Veteran journalist, media critic and Observer columnist, Claude Robinson, literally moaned on a 'Nationwide at Five' programme last week that he was distressed that after doing some ground work for the establishment of a press council years ago, nothing has yet materialised.

The Press Association should let this Vaz-King imbroglio be the catalyst to work aggressively toward establishing a press complaints council. A number of democratic countries, rightly abhorring any government censorship, has established press-councils. Some have both a press council and an Office of Press Ombudsman. South Africa has a press council, an Office of Press Ombudsman and a Press Appeals Panel. In some countries, the press council consists of media representatives and civil society and, in others, it's totally independent of media.

The fact is that we in the media do get it wrong sometimes and we do hurt people badly, sometimes even unintentionally and without malice. Not all of the damage is libellous. Sometimes we are skilful in avoiding libel or slander but we can artfully damage people's reputations nevertheless. We often arrogantly pass off ourselves as the unelected guardians of "the people's interest" and we frequently remind people that we are the buffer between them and malevolent and corrupt governments, that we are the real protectors of their rights and freedoms.

But who will protect the people against us? Who will guard the guards, as the Romans asked insightfully? What recourse do "the people" have when we damage their reputation and good name? What rights do they have against our innuendoes, suggestive assertions, allegations and damning charges? How do we erase the doubts we create in people's minds when we publish or broadcast false and highly damaging information believed by many who read or hear them? What about the rights of the people we hurt? In our arrogance, we conflate our supposed rights with the "rights of the people" and we brook no questioning of our inalienable right and freedom to publish and broadcast whatever we want.

But freedom of the press and freedom of expression are not necessarily the same as we vainly suppose. Sometimes, as media practitioners, we drown out the people's free expression by our biases, prejudices and prejudgments. I challenge our new president, the highly-respected and personable Jenni Campbell, to give priority to the issue of ethics in media.

Because these matters come down to ethics and values. There has been a lot of discussion in Jamaica recently about who is biased and who is not, and who can pass the perception of bias test. We need a serious discussion on the issue.

Issues have been raised about the perception of bias on the part of two commissioners who are known to have had some dealings with people in the Jamaica Labour Party, and that was supposed to have disqualified them to serve as commissioners into the Manatt, Phelps and Phillips issue.

The director of public prosecutions is concerned about perception of bias in the case of Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey and wants her to recuse herself from the Kern Spencer case. And Vaz is charging bias in the case of the Sunday Herald.

Ultimately, the issue of bias comes down to the issue of integrity. I might have a close friendship with a certain politician who might have a dispute with another politician or public official. If I write a column or host a talk-show, will I allow my friendship with this individual, who might have done a lot for me personally, to affect how I write or speak about his detractor? That comes down to integrity. I must be committed to a set of principles - such as fairness, justice and impartiality - above my personal, selfish interests.

I might have the opportunity through media to promote my friends over their competitors and to use that influence unfairly to advance my friends' interests. That would be an abuse of power and would constitute corruption. It's an ethical issue.

In this small society where people are so interlinked, you are going to need people of integrity to be able to maintain their professionalism and not abuse their positions. Some of us in media, under the guise of freedom of the press, hurt, malign and defame people.

return of The Spike

We need more self-criticism as a profession. I welcome the return of The Spike and hope he will not go on leave for some time. But we needed more than that. The PAJ used to publish its own PAJ News where, as professionals, we could critique ourselves and engage in introspection. We need to revive that. Make that a goal, Jenni. I remember Fitzroy Nation's first-rate critical column on media in the 1970s in PAJ News. We need to criticise ourselves. And there is nothing at all improper, or "cannibalistic" about journalists publicly and constructively criticising one another. I open myself to public critique and am not afraid to give it. We are too thin-skinned as journalists. Arrogance and defensiveness are part of our psychopathology. We must lose it!

The PAJ needs to go back to the time when we had regular fora, discussing critical issues. We need to look at how we cover the political parties, whether we are, in fact, evidencing intolerable bias, unfairness, partiality or even malice. Let us not wait for the politicians to make the charges. Let us do the self-examination.

But, I say systems, not men. Let us have the established mechanisms, the structures like the Press Council where the examples of unprofessionalism, damaging bias and gross lack of objectivity are censured and people named and shamed.

Let's do more than guilt-by-association: This journalist is close to these people so he can't be impartial and fair; this person is a member of this party so he must be unfair and prejudiced; this paper is owned by these persons who don't like Bruce Golding so the paper and all its writers must be in a conspiracy to bring down the Government. Let us engage in evidence-based, content analysis.

The PAJ should pledge that by next year's celebration of National Journalism Week, if a minister feels aggrieved by any media housem, he can smile with and fraternise with any of its representatives, knowing that he has a body to "deal with" that organ without attracting any unfavourable publicity through any reported brawl. After all, social occasions should be entirely delightful.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@yahoo.com. Feedback may also be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com .