The Press as an Instrument for the Pursuit of Truth [transcript]

By Femi Kusa
  
 [Full Text]
  
It gives me great pleasure, for several reasons, to be honored by
you to speak today on this subject. For not only do I belong to a
profession that is expected by all to unconditionally uphold truth and
fair-play at all times, I also work on a newspaper, The Guardian,
whose goal is to be the guardian of society. Under this newspaper’s
masthead, is the inscription, “Conscience Nurtured By Truth” It is
adapted from the saying, “Conscience is an open wound… only Truth can
heal it”, credited to Othman Dan Fodio, a great Islamic scholar who
lived in northern Nigeria in the last century.
 
Our newspaper’s motto
challenges us, always, to listen to that often-mentioned “little
voice”, that inner or still voice, and to accord our actions with the
Truth when we exercise editorial judgment. On this note, therefore,
did I find myself on what appeared to be familiar ground when I had the
privilege of contemplating the theme of this conference:- Journalism:
The Truth and the 21st Century.
 
Beyond this, what does one make of the theme of this conference,
JOURNALISM: THE TRUTH and the 21st CENTURY, or of the angle from which
I am to examine it, namely THE PRESS AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR THE PURSUIT
OF THE TRUTH?
 
Of journalism, I believe we are all familiar. It is, as you know,
that field of human activity which distills and packages events in the
human environment for those interested in knowing about them, and
sometimes with the view to making them adopt certain attitudes. In a
sense, therefore, journalism, apart from being an informer or
informant, can be teacher, guide and guardian.
 
Of what constitutes the Truth, opinions are divided. Some people
believe the Truth exists. Others believe everything is a matter of
opinion, that human perception is selective and, therefore, relative.
This is natural and understandable, given individual differences. But
aren’t opinions mere expressions of limited human understanding of
life? In any case, which opinion is sacrosanct in the ever-expanding
frontiers of the knowledge of life? The same, I believe, goes for how
different people will appreciate the concept of a 21st century.
 
In sorting out my thoughts on the theme of this conference ,I could
easily have entered into a strict journalistic discussion on how
practitioners arrive at Truth, while collecting , interviewing,
sifting, reporting, analyzing, interpreting, back- grounding and
placing a story into proper perspective .I could also, within the ambit
of this, highlight key concerns shared by many Third World journalists
on how their societies are portrayed in the Western media by their
relatively better opportune and more fortunate colleagues, and whether,
in doing their job , Truth has been properly served.