| Lazy editor’ll
produce bad reporters, bad newspaper – Keith Hayes BBC
trainer
By TIMOTHY OLA
Wednesday,
December 19, 2007
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Hayes
Photo: SunNews Publishing
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Curiosity is an indispensable attribute of a good journalist.
The news hunter is constantly in search of the kernel of an
event or happening. However, for Keith Hayes, a BBC trainer
and former head of news at Reuters, his quest to unravel the
web of events at the terrorists’ den, in Northern Ireland,
as a reporter, almost cost him his dear life.
Keith’s over 40 years of journalism has made him criss-cross
several countries, including Germany, Romania, Kosovo, Northern
Ireland, USA, China, India and recently Nigeria. Radiating
energy with robust analytical mind even at the age of 65,
he insisted that journalism does not have a place for lazy
people.
How I became journalists trainer
Having worked in the countries I mentioned earlier, I later
joined CNBC. I was with them till 2002 before I went to Kosovo
to head the media programme of American government. From then,
I started to do training programme for journalists. I have
been a full time trainer since 2004 and I no longer broadcast
except handling documentaries. The BBC World Service Trust,
a unit of the British Broadcasting Corporation in London,
decided to engage me for the training of journalists in Nigeria
since last year.
The training was designed to expose journalists to reportage
of budget issues, so as to keep the people informed about
public spending and make government accountable to the people.
The exercise, running in six states of Nigeria, including
Lagos and Abuja since mid last year, was sponsored by the
European Union.
We believe Nigerian journalists ought to take news reporting
and analysis of budget issues from the mostly uninteresting
high-sounding figures to a rather simple everyday expression
of the Nigerian people. That is one of the ways we, as the
voice of the people, can help to make the society better.
It is not an antagonism of government but a way of asking
government to do what it was elected to do. This is the duty
of the Press all over the world.
Why I chose journalism profession
I have a fairly powerful broadcast voice. In my younger days,
cameramen liked me because I was much handsome than I am now.
This means that I have the basics to work in the broadcast
medium as a journalist. But the real issue is I love the job.
I like talking to people, learning new thing and meeting new
challenges and that you never know what is going to happen
next in journalism. It is a wonderful profession to be. I
marvel that something new comes around daily even with my
40 years of experience.
Each situation brings a new thing, new approach of handling
certain condition. It is exciting and challenging. A lot of
people are joining journalism and moving out of it after two
years, thinking it was going to be glamorous and their names
hitting the headline.
However, the profession demands handwork. You have to read
and try to find information all the time. But the other thing
is that, I have a burning passion for it and it has stuck
since. If you stay in journalism for two years, you probably
want to stay there and never wanted to do any other thing.
Some people want to do public relations in journalism, so
that they can make a lot of money doing what people want them
to do or think.
They have to be careful because having made so much money,
they lose their focus. The society is the kernel of journalism
practices and every journalist ought to be guided by this
belief. We examine the society and the government to ensure
the government is during what it supposed to do. That is our
job.
I was to be killed
One incident I will never forget in my journalism experience
was what happened when I first went to Northern Ireland in
1970. The terrorists were shooting civilians and British soldiers.
I went with the British Army Patrol as a journalist to cover
the confrontation with the terrorists and the officer in charge
of the British Army instructed me to watch the man in my front,
“count to five and then follow him,” the officer
told me.
But the soldier in my front was like 10 yards against the
wall. I was giving one, two three, four, five and I was getting
to the wall before he (officer) got there. It was the most
difficult and worse moment of my journalism career because
the bullet could have come from the enemy. I never realized
how close I was to the enemy’s bullets and, in fact,
death, until the officer shouted at me. It was terrific and
I was afraid. Though I know that as a journalist, we always
find ourselves in strange situation, I think it was a difficult
moment for me.
Journalism in the West and Africa
I believe as my colleagues in Europe too that there is a strong
bond that ties all journalists, whether in the U.S, Britain,
Russia, India or Balkan. Journalism is big brotherhood or
fraternity to which those journalists committed to the profession
are members. Actually, it is the condition that are different
not journalism per se. When I sit down with Nigerian journalists,
we talk about the same issues, the same debate, skill, problem
and it is the same way of overcoming them. Having been to
many countries, I can rightly say that journalists are the
same, applying the same principle but addressing a whole range
of different problems in the society.
Lazy journalists in Nigeria
Here, there are some journalists who do really go after the
story. They do their home work; they dig and work till late
in the night to uncover stories. They try to overcome the
challenges on their assignments.
On the other hand, I have noticed quite some lazy newspapers
and journalists here. They simply collect press releases and
briefing materials without making further enquiries. They
don’t bother to examine, analyses or ask questions.
They simply re-write the materials given to them. That is
lazy journalism and I don’t know really why these people
should call themselves journalists because they are lazy.
If you are presented with a piece of information, you’ve
got to ensure that you cross check the ideas in the information.
You don’t just go reproducing what is given to you just
like that. You are expected to ask reasonable questions on
the issues raised by the newsmaker. Journalism is not a place
for lazy people.
A lazy editor would equally produce bad reporters and by extension
bad newspaper. Sometimes, it takes time for people to realize
that a newspaper is bad but certainly it will catch up with
such organisation one day when people realise the rubbish
it is producing.
Again, one thing I have noticed here is opinion writing in
your newspapers or magazines. There is nothing wrong with
a reporter or journalist writing opinion in the newspaper
or magazine but such opinion should be based on facts.
What I found is that there are some opinions in newspapers
here where the journalist thinks ‘well, the government
is bad and I’ve got to write something about it.’
The opinion does not contain any fact or evidence but the
feeling or view of the writer alone. Though, we all, legitimately,
in democracy have the right to express ourselves, we should
not express such opinion publicly through the media except
we back it up with facts. That is true journalism and the
set standard all over the world.
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