Communications: Pakistani media ‘committed to the truth’

Media policy expert says reporters should have one beat and in-depth training.

LAHORE:

Reporters should aim for accuracy and provide the public with complete information Dr Stephen D McDowell, Director of the College of Communication and Information at Florida State University said on Wednesday. Journalist associations and media outlets should develop their own code of practice and should adhere to it to maintain standards and avoid state intervention, he added. Dr McDowell arrived in Lahore on October 24 to participate in a two-day international conference on Pakistan: Challenges to Democracy, Governance and National Unity.

Speaking with The Express Tribune he said he found Pakistani media and students very ‘committed to telling the truth’. Dr McDowell, who leaves for the United States on Thursday (today), said it bode well that journalists he had spoken with wanted to build public institutions in Pakistan.

Dr McDowell, who has expertise in media policy and international communication, researched Pakistani media’s response in 2007 when the chief justice (CJ) was sacked by the then president in 2007.

McDowell analysed the editorials of the country’s leading English language newspapers between March 2007 and July 2007. “I found that the Pakistani press had vehemently argued about the rule of law. The editorials argued that there was a Constitution and the president should have followed it. Some even wrote that the president should withdraw the reference against the CJ,” he added.

McDowell said he also did research by looking at editorials of different leading English newspapers in the rest of South Asia and how they reacted to a crisis. He said student and journalist exchange programmes could help in bridging the gaps between Americans and Pakistanis.

Speaking about investigative journalism he said that media organisations should invest in their reporters by assigning them to cover specific beats for extended periods and training them extensively. “Investigative journalism is expensive. There is a foundation, Propublica, in the US that does investigative reporting and then shares its work with media organizations, including matters newspapers cannot allow their reporters to spend months on,” he said.

He said that it was his fourth visit to Pakistan. He first visited Pakistan in 1989 but visited Lahore for the first time in 2009. “Lahore is very hospitable and vibrant. It’s a good city for a journalist to live in as something is always happening. It’s got a great food culture as well,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2011.