Around the globe, issues facing journalists the same

The Media and Political Change: Europe

Commentary

By John Seigenthaler
Founder, First Amendment Center

07.02.01

Printer-friendly page

John Seigenthaler

As I and my colleagues from The Freedom Forum have listened, one thing comes through to me, and that is how universal is this practice, this profession, of journalism. There is no question, no problem, that has been discussed in this room today that my colleagues and I have not heard in our travels around the world; and beyond that there is no problem that has been raised here that we have not had to deal with at home in the United States.

I looked at those gripping scenes of racial, ethnic violence covered by the television channel. You might know that I come from the South; I do have a little honey-dripping accent. Those scenes could have been taken in my country — were taken in my country — 40 years ago when racial injustice dominated my region of the country. The thugs turned on the journalists first to try to suppress the coverage, and then turned on the minorities with stones and bricks and brickbats.

When we talk about hate speech, it is an issue that we deal with in the United States today. There still are racial demagogues all over our country, and the question we ask ourselves as journalists is: If we expose exactly what they say, do we expose them as demagogues, or do we spread the hatred further across our country?

And that other issue that you talked about today — diversity in your newsrooms: For 25 years the number of minorities in our country's newsrooms has increased — until this year. For the first time this year, after 20 years of progress, we have regressed. There are fewer minorities in our newsrooms today than there were a year ago. That's one of the chief interests of The Freedom Forum at home: to increase that level of diversity, an issue that you struggle with in very much the same way here.

(U.S. journalist and educator) Sherry (Ricchiardi) spoke about corporate self-censorship. Self-censorship is a problem all around the world. It is a problem in our country. Not too long ago one of the great newspaper enterprises, the Times Mirror Co., was sold by its owners after the management of the Los Angeles Times, its flagship newspaper, decided to conspire with corporate advertisers and to deceive journalists in the newsroom. And the result of that was a great scandal in American journalism. That is not the only example. Self-censorship does exist in the United States, and it's corporate self-censorship that drives it.

As I think back, it was 52 years and a few months ago that I first walked into a newsroom. Over that half-century, as I have watched journalism evolve at home and around the world, the universal danger everywhere — and certainly in the United States — has been not corporate censorship, which is a problem, but government censorship. Governments across the South, across the United States, around the world, seek to regulate, seek to suppress, seek to control, (and) where they can, seek to censor. We all live with it on a continuing basis.

As our colleague (Nik Gowing) from the BBC said the other day, there are calls from the government — whether it's the local government or the state government or the national government whose problems are being exposed. There are pressures exerted by the government. The local mayor may call. Advertisers may seek to cancel advertising — a problem that I know exists here and all around the world.

It does seem to me that, as I think on it, there are two defenses — two great defenses — that we journalists have. And one of them is our professionalism. Our cultures may differ, but there are enduring values that run like a red thread through a white cloth around the globe. Our professionalism, our search for elusive truth, is our great strength. And the second (defense), of course, is our courage. I would be the last journalist in the world — an American journalist should be the last in the world — to come to this region and talk to journalists here about courage. What we've seen since we've been here, what you've demonstrated in your conversations here, is a measure of courage that journalists admire in my country and around the world.

I'll close with this thought: Freedom of the press, in my country and yours, is never secure. It is not secure at home, nor is it anywhere around the world. It is always in the process of being made secure. Our professionalism and our courage are the only weapons we have to make sure that the process continues.

So, on behalf of all of us from The Freedom Forum, I thank you for the learning experience you provided us. We take home more than we brought. And we thank you all for your presence, and more than that, for all you've done to fight for freedom of the press — and all you will do to sustain it.

The above are edited excerpts from remarks by John Seigenthaler, founder of the First Amendment Center and trustee of The Freedom Forum, at the conclusion of the Europe Media Forum and related programs in Zagreb and Opatija, Croatia, June 27-30, 2001.

Related

2001 Europe Media Forum
Coverage of 2001 Europe Media Forum  07.01.01