COMMENT If you have been to a school of journalism, you will probably be taught that drawing the lines between do’s and don’ts is a fairly straightforward job in news reporting.

Get both sides of the story, use the word “alleged” liberally to hopefully avoid lawsuits, and make sure you figure out what’s newsworthy before deciding on your opening paragraph.

But when you dip your feet into the real world of journalism, you will realise, before your story even hits the deck, that whatever manuals you have from your journalism school are not going to help you figure out what you “should” or “can” write as a news piece.

The mystifying disappearance of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 from our radars on March 8, a unique, prolonging mystery that will surely be a key feature in aviation history, seems to have exposed this crucial juxtaposition of the media and the role that it has to play in shaping opinion.

It is not fair to say that only the Malaysian news media is suffering from a struggle to draw this delicate line between swallowing and regurgitating every news or speculation available on an everyday basis.

Here, it seems that the international media, especially the tabloids from the United Kingdom and even news channels such as CNN, have been guilty of turning this MH370 tragedy into some sort of disaster porn , exploring every possible scenario, however wild.

As a member of the media fraternity, I will be the first to admit that figuring out where to take a stand and when to be just a news outlet is not an easy task. The rules of the game have changed, and everything is dictated by pace and competition - the temptation is to have what your neighbour is having, only better.

 

Shaping opinions

But at the height of this unprecedented national crisis, it is crucial that we also be very conscious about the direction we take in shaping opinions.

The past few days, for example, have been very disturbing. I cannot even discount the top global media organisations from prying into the lives of the pilot, co-pilot, and even the engineer of the ill-fated flight and making insinuations against persons not present to defend themselves.

I am not here to argue about theories - the golden rule of the thumb has always been the same in any modern judicial system: innocent until proven guilty.

However, all these insinuations, which the media have lapped up without considering the consequences for the affected families, are bound to besmirch the name of an individual, who, until proven guilty, cannot be assumed to be a criminal.

 

T he police and the government are not helping with their somewhat public disclosure on how they are nitpicking into the lives of the pilots of MH370.

These are the same authorities who often maintain a stoic silence when asked to be more transparent and open about the way they are investigating and considering new information on the location of MH370 every day.

Of course, for some, news is news, regardless of the consequences. But, sometimes we must draw a line. Because, like it or not, we are tasked with shaping public opinions. That is why we are called the fourth estate.

Ruling politicians tell us to be “responsible” in penning our stories because these can affect national harmony. While that is a political game, with the participants well aware of the spotlight cast upon them in public life, here we are talking about the lives, careers and personal choices of normal civilians who did not want to lead a public life.

These are people like you and me, those in the shadows - they do not want their names dragged through the mud for the cause of news consumption.

A thankless task

Sometimes, the choice that you make in regard to what you choose not to tell matters more than what you tell.

This is not an easy time for us in the media - there are many of us who work around the clock, either to satiate our own curiosity or to find closure to an event that has deeply troubled us.

                    

We live and we die by the stories we tell, the truths we reveal, and the half-truths that we expose.

We also live and die by the impacts that our stories create. Some days, we have the licence to say we are only doing what our bosses, or our work brief, tells us to do. We are making a living, we say. It’s a thankless task.

This is an even more thankless task - to actually rise above that and be a responsible story teller, especially in times of a multinational crisis.

Nonetheless, the Malaysian authorities can't run away from the reality that while investigation teams from other countries provide information to their media outlets, Malaysian authorities have done nothing but to give us the cold shoulder, leaving us to rely on world media to obtain news about a crisis in our home turf.

If our authorities do not trust us to be credible and constructively informative in this crucial juncture, how else do we establish a more dignified and respected media fraternity in Malaysia?   

Talking to us during elections alone will not overcome the shortcomings of the industry or its lack of access to information.

If the authorities and the industry want a better press fraternity, the time is nigh. The window may not stay open for long.

RAM ANAND is a member of the Malaysiakini team.