Buli’s Thoughts Unpacked

I always find it interesting that people who don’t work in media or journalism assume that they know how the industry works.

But I find it very annoying and downright disrespectful when people insist on telling journalists how to do their job.

Don’t get me wrong – we do value people’s advice, input, feedback and opinions, but we don’t take very kindly to dictatorship, especially when the people giving the “advice” are trying to push their own agenda.

Journos love a good story and live for it, but we are nobody’s mouthpiece.

If you have something that you feel is newsworthy, please do give us all the information you can give, but just don’t make a mistake of thinking you can dictate on how we do the story.

I assume the reason you go to a journalist with information is because you know they know what they are doing – otherwise you wouldn’t have wasted your time going to them.

What I have noticed is that most people make the mistake of thinking that when they give information to a journalist, that means the journalist will take their side.

What is even worse is when people think you are going to write the story without getting other sides of the story.

Journalism is guided by a code of ethics and they are not just there – they must be adhered to.

If you are fighting with your neighbour and you feel you want to get back at them by running to the papers, please don’t do it. Not only is that not newsworthy, but you are also wasting my time as a journalist.

If you suspect your neighbour is a criminal, if you are really concerned about crime, I expect you to at least go to the police first because they – not journalists – are the ones trained to deal with criminals.

If you are a political party, newspapers are not your mouthpiece. I would assume that any political party would have its own PR people to spread its agenda. Journalists don’t work for politicians. Journalists are not there to take sides; they are simply there to report on facts (good or bad) and it is not up to us to convince the reader who is right and who is wrong.

People need to understand that no matter how passionate they feel about something and they want to get it out there, remember that journalists will still do their job and verify the information.

So, if you want a one-sided story, please don’t waste your time as well as mine. Please don’t be annoyed when a journalist asks you a lot of questions because that is also a big part of our job. Journos tend to ask even more questions when we feel something is amiss. Please just bear with us because we want our readers to have clarity when they read the story.

When we do our job, we must always have all sides to the story because we always strive for facts and we also want to be fair to all the parties involved.

Now and then you will have those stories because as a journo you cannot force people to comment but you always afford them the opportunity.

If you have a hidden agenda when sending a story to a journalist, I would suggest and advise you not to do to it because that can backfire on you.

Another thing; if you are media shy, rather stay away from the media unless you are absolutely sure that you don’t have a problem with seeing your name in print.

There is nothing as annoying as people who run to the media but when you ask if you can quote them, they tell you they want to remain anonymous.

That looks suspicious, especially if there is no real danger in publishing your name.

You have a lot of people going to the media but want to be faceless – more like those who talk a lot on social media but cannot repeat the same thing when they are confronted.

Yes, in some instances you will get those stories where you feel publishing a person’s name may put them in danger, but wanting to remain anonymous on stories about service delivery issues just makes me wonder if you are not just pushing your own agenda and trying to use the media in the process.

Unless you are genuine, the media is not where you want to go.