Dinner hosted by Indian Newslink

Greetings:  His Excellency Kadakath Pathrose Ernest, Indian High Commissioner, Dr Rajen Prasad, Chief Families Commissioner, Dr Ajit Singh, Judge, Manukau District Court, Dr Ashraf Choudhary, Member of Parliament, Mr Ravin Lal, Managing Director of Indian Newslink, Mr Venkat Raman, Editor of Indian Newslink, ladies and gentlemen.

Kia Ora Tatou Namaste, Namaskaar Sat Sri Akaal Salaam Walaikum Kam Cho

It is a great honour for me to be here this evening and enjoy this wonderful dinner.  Apologies for Susan.

It has been a roller coaster 51 days since my swearing-in and in a way this evening is a bit like a homecoming, allowing me, as it were, to share a meal with familiar and friendly faces.   

I have been asked to speak on 'responsible journalism' tonight and may I say that I have been approaching the subject with some trepidation.  As Governor-General, it is my duty to be a figure of trust for all New Zealanders and I must therefore tread carefully when it comes to the media. 

Too easily, a comment, made lightly or perhaps in haste, can be misconstrued or reported out of context.  In other words, while my activities and comments can be - and should be - reported on, it is imperative that I steer clear of controversy which could lead to an alienation of the office of Governor-General from some sectors of society.

So if I am to make comment on a thorny issue such as responsible journalism, I must do so in a very considered and measured way, yet, in order to prevent you all from going to sleep before the hour you intended, I must also make my remarks meaningful and interesting.

At the end of my brief speech here this evening, I shall count the number of still open around the room to ascertain to what degree, if any, I have succeeded in my delicate mission.

I would like to begin by making an observation:  we have some excellent journalism training organisations in our country.  That was not always the case.  In fact, we didn't have a journalism school until 1966 when the first one was established in Wellington.  Just last month, I had the honour of investing the person instrumental in the establishment of the school, Christine Cole Catley, as a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit -  an honour which a number would say was awarded not before time.

Today, we have journalism schools in a number of parts of the country, and we also have training programmes, such as internships, that are run by media companies themselves. 

There are some excellent umbrella organisations, such as the Journalism Education Association of New Zealand and the Journalism Training Organisation, which make vital contributions to the setting of rigorous standards for the profession.  These standards apply to both professional skills - such as writing, interviewing, researching - and professional ethics - such as producing a balanced story.  So all in all we have a very sound basis to produce quality journalism -  at least at the study or training level, in this country.

Once the training of a journalist is completed, however, he or she will enter the 'real world', in other words, the newsroom.  And the budding journalist will be confronted with issues which may have been discussed in theoretical terms at the journalism school, but which now attain a real and personal dimension. 

Take that which some call "chequebook journalism", for example.  Chequebook journalism is a much derided but increasingly common practice of securing exclusive interviews.  In an ideal world, where everyone has equal access to information, chequebook journalism simply would not exist.  And if ethics were the only yardstick for journalists, then also it would not exist. 

But the reality is that news organisations operate in a fiercely competitive market and that ratings, or readership figures, have become a major influencing factor behind editorial decisions. 

This means that chequebook journalism has become, and I use the words of media doyen Jim Tully of CanterburyUniversity, 'almost inevitable'. 

Yet, according to Tully, this practice raises serious ethical issues.  "Chequebook journalism threatens the free flow of information because exclusive deals deny some people access to information in which they have a legitimate interest and about which they rightly feel entitled to be informed", Tully observes.

So what is the budding journalist, under pressure from a ratings- or circulation-driven editor and his or her own career expectations, to do?  Remain ethically pure and reject such a practice, or jump on board and accept that chequebook journalism has become a reality in journalism today? 

There may be many influencing factors contributing to a journalist's decision in such a case.  Is his or her job at stake, for example?  Or what if there would be no information disclosure at all if no money changed hands, and therefore the public would not get access to the story at all?

What would be the responsible thing to do?  I venture to say that there is no one right answer to this question.  In the end, journalists need to make these decisions on their own.  They need to be able to justify their actions to themselves, on the basis of all they have learned from those who taught them the skill of journalism. 

We do have bodies in New Zealand that deal with the issue we are debating tonight at a formal and public level.  They are the Broadcasting Standards Authority and the New Zealand Press Council. 

These bodies are regularly called upon to rule on issues relating to fairness, accuracy and balance in journalism.  Their presence encourages journalists to act responsibly.

But in the end, I believe responsible journalism is a challenge that rests directly with the professional.  Responsible journalism is practised when journalists question themselves, when they stand back and judge themselves, on whether they meet the standards set by the industry and set by themselves.

It is journalists who forget to look at their work and their craft who act irresponsibly.  And perhaps the one thing that is most important in all of this is that journalists, rather than having a pre-set idea of what is right or wrong, retain an open mind. 

Just how important that is was brought home to me just a few weeks ago, when I discovered there remains some truth in the old journalism saying "never let the facts get in the way of a good story".

I was interviewed by an overseas news organisation of some repute and the interviewer was determined to assert that New Zealand was a country rife with racism.  It took some effort on my part to explain to the reporter that we are an egalitarian country and that she was mistaken.  I am still not sure whether I succeeded.  Even though she was calling from the other side of the world and I was able to give her a first-hand, eye witness account, if you like, she still seemed insistent that her original premise was correct.

In the end, we rely on the press to inform us, and we rely on the press to question circumstances to reveal the truth to us.  To that end, we need to have faith in our press and in our journalists, that they take their responsibility seriously and that they act professionally.  And we need to hope and encourage youngsters to take up this difficult yet essential trade. 

The famed and often-quoted United States businessman and philanthropist Warren Buffett once said:  "The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves - and the better the teacher, the better the student body."

I want to leave you with these thoughts this evening, but not without issuing a word of thanks to those here this evening who are practising journalists.  The press in New Zealand makes an essential contribution to our country as a healthy and open democracy. 

Often, journalists are not thanked for their work.  They get paid less than their colleagues in public relations, they work long hours and the free lunches that used to be common practice in the eighties seem a distant memory today.  So I want to thank you, for your own personal contribution to informing the public and for taking on the great responsibility that comes with being a journalist.

Tena koutou katoa.