Why aren’t Journalists in PNG confrontational? I am
affirming that ‘confrontational’ here means to ‘stand up’ or ‘speak out’ and
ask the hard questions to those who are responsible for the masses in terms of
health, education, welfare, ICT etc. While
there may be a variety of reasons and some people will have even more stronger,
valid points than I may make here, in my opinion, I believe that the ability of
a journalist to be ‘confrontational’ is hampered by news media organizations in
the country who employ journalists.
1. Lack of support by
news organisations - I am of the
belief that we as journalists in PNG have very little to be confrontational
about since we have not shown that we are prepared for hard work. When was the
last time, a news organisation put effort, resources and sought professional
and technical advice to investigate a story? When have we seen a step by step
investigative story uncovering facts and intelligent writing? The story of
budget cuts and not enough resources have been excuses that impede us as journalist
to take longer, deeper meaningful research into an issue. Entertainment news
has taken over the issue based news because it is easier to write and takes
much less time to produce. How often do we see a follow up of a story six
months after an event happened? We never got to hear what happened to the
outbreak of Cholera in remote area of Morobe Province six months later after everyone closed up and went away. Then we
had a similar outbreak in NCD some months later. Which news organisation wants to send a
reporter to visit this remote part of Morobe, then ask the hard questions to
WHO, Morobe Provincial Government and minister for Health, study the
epidemiology of Cholera, trace the origins of Cholera in PNG, find the
associations between susceptibility and transmission? All this finding and
exploring takes time and financial resources – something news organisations
profess not to have. Iam of the opinion that if news organisations or
journalists are to be foundations of the fourth estate, then time and financial
resources must be devoted to investigate stories and seek to uncover facts and
figures that influence issues. News organisations must be prepared to fund
journalists to travel, do research and help write intelligently and produce
news stories.
2. Keeping journalists in
news media. - Iam also of the belief that journalists who possess the
passion and the drive to take on investigative journalism, are not being rewarded
or justifiably commensurated financially by news organisations. This, I believe
is not only found in PNG but evident throughout the Pacific. Many who start off in the field of journalism
as general news reporters, who then take specialist fields such as business,
HIV/AIDS, politics, agriculture, mining, carbon fuels, information technology, sports
etc don’t usually stay in that news area for long. This is because as they
become more experienced, more knowledgeable of the subject area and write
accurately, they are more often than not, subject to be coaxed into leaving the
news organizations for ‘greener pastures’. This mostly include higher salary,
housing, travel, allowances and better working hours, all of which better than
those provided by media organizations. They then become public relations
officers, community media officers or even journalists in that organisation. Thus,
this migration leaves a gap in news organisations that cannot be easily filled.
Gone are the person’s valuable experiences, advisory roles, leadership, news
values, contacts, etc, things which cannot be easily replaced. How is that related to a journalist be
confrontational? For a journalist to be confrontational, he/she needs good advisors
to guide the research, people who can be mentors, people who have experiences
over decades, people who can sniff out a rat or see a problem a mile away - the
kind of skills are not easily given but gained over the years. As they leave, they also take their reputation,
skills and credibility and leave the news organisation having very little to write
or produce investigative stories. It is about time news media organisations pay
journalists what they deserve and keep them on the job for longer periods.
Em tasol!
