By Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysian Digest
01 January 2013
What Utusan Malaysia’s lawyer reportedly told the High Court on Dec 27 is shocking.
According to The Malaysian Insider, Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin said newspapers do not have the “luxury of time” to verify the truth of news reports before publishing them.
In defending Utusan Malaysia’s report that allegedly accused Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim of being a proponent of gay rights, Firoz also said, “If newspapers have to go through the full process of ascertaining the truth, the details, they wouldn’t be able to report the next day.”
If he thinks this would justify the publication of untruths by the media, he is grossly wrong. No media organization should ever publish untruths or lies. On top of that, no media organization can, after doing it, claim justification by saying it had no time to check its facts.
Not checking facts before publication is a cardinal sin in journalism. And no self-respecting journalist or media could absolve themselves by saying they did not have the “luxury of time”. Continue reading “There’s No Excuse For Not Reporting The Truth”