The journey to becoming a journalist is a long and treacherous one. There are tales of dodging the deadline bullet, where those who attempted to bite it ended up with two front teeth missing. There is the land of Spikes, where spear-headed apparitions bay for your story’s blood, and realms that leave you vulnerable to scrutiny and complaint. If a serpent’s tooth is sharp, then you need to be a Guillotine paper cutter. If the Iron Lady is case-hardened, then you must be titanium. Most importantly, where there is free lunch, you must be abhorrent of it.
The journey to becoming a journalist is a long and treacherous one. There are tales of dodging the deadline bullet, where those who attempted to bite it ended up with two front teeth missing. There is the land of Spikes, where spear-headed apparitions bay for your story’s blood, and realms that leave you vulnerable to scrutiny and complaint. If a serpent’s tooth is sharp, then you need to be a Guillotine paper cutter. If the Iron Lady is case-hardened, then you must be titanium. Most importantly, where there is free lunch, you must be abhorrent of it.
At first glance, a free lunch is simply that: free. On closer inspection, however, a free lunch is riddled with unspoken favours and drizzled with a sauce that can leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
On March 20, City Press news editor Natasha Jordan, during a talk at Rhodes University, delved into the subject of ethics by asking: “Is there something rotten in the state of journalism?”
Journalism, like all other professions, has flaws. Stories such as the “brown envelope” saga, where it was alleged that former Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool was paying two reporters to write stories in his favour, are not new and sully our credibility.
While we act as gatekeepers and reporters for the 'everyman', our profession is also lathered with a thick layer of unsolicited favours and gifting. The courtesy of an interviewee paying for lunch can sometimes turn into nothing short of bribery. There is an immense power that comes with information, and because of scandals of journalists being paid exorbitant amounts of money to write slanted stories, maybe it’s time we launch a probe into our own ethics and transparency.
The Protection of Information Bill is an example of the power, and sometimes the threat, that information has. But is the journalism industry really a threat if we’re being paid to write by the very people we report on?
In its current form, the Information Bill trumps the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application. This bears as much impact on the public as it does the press. According to Joseph, journalists countrywide were so caught up in what would happen to the trade as opposed to how it would affect the ordinary man. “Freebies”, from thank you gifts to free tickets, are just one of many things that can put a journalist in a compromising position.
We act as watchdogs but we do not watch ourselves, as one paper calling out another is criticised as mud-slinging. What is even more compromising is when journalists make the very news they write. British tabloid News of the World’s phone hacking scandal is an example of that, and with devastating consequences. There is a serious need for self-regulation and examination from within our ranks and a hammering in of ethical practices. Because in fact, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
