RePorting, not suPporting
Reading the response mail from the public after a recent press release I published, containing information that Brian Boswell's Circus was coming to the area, I felt as if I had been accused of whipping and kicking animals myself.
Concerns raised were that publishing this article is contradicting my journalist bio, which states that one of my interests lies with animals.
I am a firm believer in individual opinions and respect and welcome readers’ thoughts, as you are entitled to speak your mind.
However, an accusation that I feel was thrown around quite aggressively and unfairly in these comments, was the assumption of my support of the circus.
Let’s look at the overall meaning of the job title, “journalist”.
My duty as a reporter includes distributing news and other information, without the unprofessional inclusion of making it known what my thoughts on it are.
As it falls under my duties to cover the entertainment section of our paper, I was assigned to make the information available to those who might be interested.
To go or not to go to the circus was 100 per cent the choice of the public.
I think individuals who implied that the City Times and I, in particular, “support” this establishment, must be very good at knowing what we are thinking, even better than we do, because I do not recall seeing “The Benoni City Times urges the public to attend the circus,” nor “I, Tanya Bester encourage you to go”, included in the article.
I did not claim to be against them either, because I am not entitled to do so.
A very important ethic to implement in the act of reporting is to not be biased.
A journalist can support the ANC and would still have to attend the DA meetings to report on them.
If we report on a murder, does it mean we are promoting the act of the killing?
I do love animals very much, and feel very protective of them.
This fact does not permit me to decide whether people should be informed of the circus’s presence, or not.
This story was not meant to cover the animal angle of it, as no recent reports on animal abuse in the circus were made.
Also, please keep in mind that we are a community-based newspaper.
The circus was on the East Rand, yet not in Benoni itself, nor did it have a direct link to Benoni and, therefore, did not receive in-depth coverage from us.
