ICT Should Boost Professional Journalism

There is no doubt that the media has played a major role in bringing changes and creating awareness among the people. In fact, there was a time when many journalists were engaged only in 'mission' journalism, acting according to their political beliefs and nothing else. This was alright and many people were motivated by what they wrote or reported. That was a time when journalism was not only a low paying job, but also a dangerous profession to be involved in. Most of the then journalists have to be taken as pioneers of this sector and their contribution should never be forgotten.

This author however, was a trained journalist and believed more in professionalism, which sometimes were setbacks, no matter which person or which party was in power. Sometimes persons like me had to be engaged in heated discussions with the powerful authorities because of beliefs in ethical journalism, while the decision makers had different ideas. I was totally amazed by the 'deafening' silence of the so called 'mainstream media' when a Nepali woman was allegedly murdered by her own husband in America, which always preaches others about democracy and human rights among such other idealistic themes, sometimes which poorer or less powerful nations can ill afford to practice for their own reasons.

Tragic incident 

I fully respect the American people and media for coming quickly to respond to this tragic incident of a young Nepali woman and the huge support they have generated for this unfortunate victim though she was an outsider. Till the time of writing this piece, it has not been proved that the husband of the woman was responsible for her brutal murder. But there have been many circumstantial evidences that the alleged man from Far Western Nepal is responsible and the county police have provided such evidences against him in the court. It is sure the court decision will also come quickly, unlike what happens where cases are kept in a pending stage for many years. The media which always comes up in arms on much smaller issues, have not written or spoken about this tragic event.

We had started the trend of giving development news, when all other media outlets were busy in politics only, but we are not so big experts to comment on whether such trends in the media were right or wrong. Now we see many very learned persons and others who are mainly working for changing the mindset of readers and viewers for their own interests ruling the roost of media, while others have simply been marginalised or tagged with accusations just because they are independent and speak for national interests rather than political or outside powers.

But having said this, like it is reminded to us that 'every cloud has a silver lining', one feels some sort of comfort in seeing good persons in the society as well, be it in politics, the government service or the media. They all have contributed a lot in keeping the name of our country in high esteem among the entire international community. Being associated with the media sector for almost five decades, it is also very nice to see young new faces doing well in this profession, especially in investigative journalism. They have done their homework well and they have data and statistics well within the reports they write or say. This was a tedious task during the older times when one had to go through dusty files for hours to get any information or background of an event or a person.

Now it has become easier to chronicle events through the development of different and now digital communication technology and though sometimes the social media has been utilised for wrong purposes, the new generation of serious journalists are doing a good job in informing the people and also creating awareness in the society because they have this technological back up. I fully welcome this sort of development in the media sector and I also have nothing but praise for the young journalists who have access to such advancements in technology, which they are correctly using to enhance the image of the media in the country.

Experiences 

At the same time, I also recall what I said to an anthropologist from Australia, who had come to interview me to ask about an article where I had talked about the old Kathmandu. I had told him not to depend only on some materials written by others to base their research on. This is exactly what I said to a senior foreign government official when she had questioned me about the interference of some countries in Afghanistan. I had said at that time and I still say now, besides all sorts of technology on which most nations depend on now, the experience of people at the 'ground level', is equally important before coming to any conclusion.

Such experience is very vital in the media sector too. Just attending some seminars, reading reports or even going to trainings, are simply not enough to present their shallow assumptions, which could immensely influence the ordinary people who read or hear what they say. Yet I still say 'yes' to the development of new technology and also the great deal of accomplishments made by the new generation of media persons, who have fully used such technology to inform us with facts, history and statistics. This was indeed a very difficult thing to do in the past, no matter how sincere or experienced a journalist may have been. For now, all we can say is that this advance in communication technology which we have at our finger tips, should be utilised for disseminating news to the people and not misused for whatever reasons.

(The author is former editor in chief of this daily.)