Journalists must not be persuaded easily from the job of telling the news – Prof. Shameem

Journalists must not allow themselves to be persuaded that they have a higher responsibility than the honourable job of telling the news.

This was stated by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Fiji, Professor Shaista Shameem, in her opening remarks during the Role of the Media in Democratic Transition in Divided Societies event at the UniFiji’s lecture theatre at Samabula Campus yesterday.

Professor Shameem says the main job of journalists is to provide accurate news and information to the public as both a duty and an obligation and the rest, for example, their possible role as upholders of any political system or as promoters of a particular worldview in any context whatsoever, is secondary to their work as reporters first and foremost.

She says she was concerned about the burden that some influencers were placing on journalists to undertake more than they should be responsible for.

She adds it had been reported that the media, in Fiji, if not in other jurisdictions, were responsible for ‘truth-telling’ and also should be seen as the ’oxygen of democracy’.

Professor Shameem says both these were problematic in her view and adds the notion of ‘truth’ was a value-laden and subjective concept as what was ‘truth’ to one person were outright lies to another.

She says as for democracy, as any self-respecting political scientist will know, it represents a spectrum- on the one side, it is ‘totalitarian’ democracy and on the other side is the exact opposite - ‘libertarian’ democracy.

Professor Shameem says liberal democracy is in the middle somewhere but it slips quite easily into one or other extreme.

She says despite every democratic state thinking or believing it is liberal, the reality is quite different.

She further says a reporter’s job is to give the news to them without embellishment or bias.

Professor Shameem says there seemed to be a growing expectation that journalists should make a stand about politics and, somehow, ‘correct thinking’.

She says she would like someone to define democracy in a way that allows everyone to agree.