"Better to be late and truthful than to tell lies"

23/09/2016

Aidan White is director of the Ethical Journalism Network, a global network which works to defend quality journalism and ethical conducts in the sector. He participated in the conference "Ethics and Journalism" which took place on 19 September at the Faculty of Communication Studies. Renowned professionals shared their viewpoints on ethical issues related to the profession. The event was organised by the Department of Journalism and Communication Studies and by the Communication and Education Bureau. White offered a conference entitled "Ethics and Journalism: a global perspective".

In Spain, there is a lack of job stability among journalists. Is this a global phenomenon?

Journalism is in the midst of an existential crisis. During the past 15 to 20 years we've seen newspapers closing and the number of journalists employed going down. There is less investment, less investigative journalism, etc. It is a crisis of structure which is causing huge problems, but there are other crises apart from the economic one. For example, in Europe in the first six months of this year there have been more than 400 acts of violence against journalists and six have been killed. But the major crisis affects the credibility of journalists and their future, and this is also a crisis suffered by the rest of society and democracies. There is a fascinating challenge in finding ways to restore the capacity of journalists to provide good information for society.

What is the current social value of journalism?

There is a communications revolution taking place and that has completely changed the way we give and receive information: we can obtain information on our phones and therefore there is no need to buy the newspaper or watch the evening news to know what is happening. At the same time, there is less investigative journalism, less specialists employed in media, fewer foreign correspondents, etc. We have more access to information than ever before, but less access to reliable and trustworthy information. We must strengthen journalism and media. Here there is a bunch of students starting this year. The question is, should they be optimistic? In my opinion, anyone coming into journalism should consider themselves lucky, because they are starting at a time of great change.

It seems that the extreme immediacy of social networks has provoked hysteria in terms of producing news.

Of course. During the killings in Nice, the mainstream media throughout Europe had a crisis: they had many images and had to decide which pictures to use. It was a difficult question because they knew that Facebook and other social networks were full of pictures of explicit violence already being shared. The media was holding back and deciding: "We must be ethical, choose humane photographs and respect our audiences". This is the type of daily crisis faced by journalism and, for me, it is a good crisis. We need a "slow" journalism: take our time and think of the consequences of what we do and how we do it.

Therefore, we cannot compete in speed, but we can compete in quality.

We should never sacrifice quality for speed. Speed is important and useful, but it is better to be late and truthful than early and telling lies.

How can we make quality journalism economically profitable?

I do not have an answer to that; nobody has an answer to that. When I worked at The Guardian, of the 12 national newspapers, it was the 10th in the UK in terms of circulation. Today, it is the second largest news provider of the internet in the English-speaking world. So it's quality has come to the top and it is very successful. But, can it make money? No. And this is a big crisis: if good journalism is unable to generate revenues, who will pay for it in the future? This is a question which must be answered because democracy relies on the provision of good information.

Do you think public funds are necessary?

They are, but raised in different ways. Not only taxes from what we earn, but from what we buy. Facebook is a good example: it is the world's largest publisher of journalism, but it regards itself as a technology company. I do not find that acceptable. A company worth 400 billion dollars, shouldn't it be contributing to the future of journalism? The answer to this requires political will and democratic commitment, and a movement which respects journalism in a democratic society.

Do you think freelance journalists work more independently than other journalists? Are they more important within the sector?

Yes. Years ago, we used to talk about media and journalism and they were the same thing. Today, they are separate. Often, most journalists producing information are freelance and many of them are not full-time journalists. So the journalistic community is fragmented. We no longer work in large information "factories": the future is freelance. And it is important that these freelances respect the ethics of journalism and that they are supported. We need unions, associations, organisations representing them.

What do you think the training of future journalists should be?

Ethics must rise up the teaching agenda. Public relations, corporate development, the techniques of journalism, how to use a camera, etc. is all very important, but the protection of contents is absolutely essential. Secondly, we need to create a new alliance between the community of journalists and the academic community, because they are two strong pillars of free expression. In many parts of the world, journalists and academics are under pressure. Today, in Turkey, journalists are being arrested and teachers are being arrested; and they are being put away because they express dissent [with the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoðan]. Therefore, there is a need to create an alliance between the academic and journalistic communities.