I refer to the Malaysiakini report I welcome criticism but...

I write to express my admiration for Baradan Kuppusamy’s professional writing and integrity as a journalist. A once ‘wanna be’ journalist, as they say in America, now turned poet, I have found his coverage of issues in Malaysia to be balanced, informative and objective.

The most outstanding quality of his work is – integrity. It is a quality lacking or rare in the character of individuals all across industries these days.

I regret that a reader dismissed his reporting and writing as ‘prostitution’. It is a reflection of his or her ignorance. The person may not understand the need for journalists to be objective as at all times.

To report the facts as gathered and to present these in a manner that informs the reader without prejudice is a skill few possess. Be assured that evidence of that skill in Baradan’s writing is what I write in admiration of.

Objective journalism is a strange word. From this end in the US, half a world away, (I am based in Denver, Colorado), I am privy to both the worlds. The American media gets a bad rap these days. Some of it is unfortunately well deserved.

Journalists and reporters, however, perform an ubiquitous role in citizenship, communal/state/ government/ and international leadership and accountability. I think some ‘prostitution’ of the profession has occurred, even here but I would like to point to individuals like Baradan there in Malaysia, and Katie Couric here in the US, who challenge the ill-informed with the facts.

In a recent television interview, Couric took on the US presidential candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin. Regrettably, both McCain and Palin chose to dismiss Couric’s intelligent questions as ‘gotcha journalism’.

The candidates have their strengths, no doubt, but it is their weaknesses that this journalist revealed. Couric’s integrity as a journalist shone light on areas of America’s perception of herself and other countries that can be improved upon.

In our quest for freedom and fight against enemies of freedom, it is imperative that we, the people, get informed and stay informed. To this end, despite Malaysia’s repressive ISA law and the damning ‘social contract’, reporters like Baradan are changing the world.

And at this end, individuals like Couric, are conscientiously keeping America free by refusing to accept fear-based declarations of what the world is. As Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek editor/ columnist, author of The Future of Freedom , Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad writes, ‘No country can give itself a new past. But it can alter the future and help its chances of developing into a liberal democracy.’

Baradan is absolutely right about stating that no one political icon is the answer. Each candidate will have to be vetted by journalists, reporters, voters and constituents. The democratic process is one in which the candidate who measures up is the one who will get the opportunity to lead.

Political leadership is not a beauty pageant. Journalists and reporters have an important role to perform. As readers imbibing print journalism and listening to conversations with political icons, on our behalf, we, too have a responsibility.

That responsibility is to give accolades when they are due, as now, and to ask more of ourselves, and the government officials we elect to office.