No Substitute for the Truth

December 28, 2010

www.sun2surf.com

No Substitute for the Truth

by Citizen-Nades (R. Nadeswaran)

TO the scores of journalists and wannabe investigative journalists, Londons City University is the place to hone their skills. It has the best facilities and academics to help one transform oneself from a good journalist to a great one where you meet some of the biggest names in journalism on campus. For those not so privileged to seek a basic degree or a post-graduate title, there is always the Summer School where the luminaries of writing skills, investigative processes, masters of undercover operations, overt and covert information gathering, get an overview at its annual sojourn over three days.

While the cameraman displaying his dummy water-bottle with a hidden camera may create the oohs and aahs at demonstrations and while IT experts show how easy it is to hack into an email account, nothing beats hearing from the men who have done it all.

Having been two of the few Malaysians (the other being Terence Fernandez) who have had the honour of attending two such courses, its always a pleasure remembering the words from the people who had mastered journalism to an art. Who could forget the forceful words of award-winning journalist, GV producer and director, John Pilger, who has held a candle for journalism in our part of the world.

It is too easy for Western journalists to see humanity in terms of its usefulness to our interests and to follow government agendas that ordain good and bad tyrants, worthy and unworthy victims and present our policies as always benign when the opposite is usually true. Its the journalists job, first of all, to look in the mirror of his own society, he says adding that a journalist must be a guardian of the public memory

Who can ever forget Andrew Jenning! s, the a ward-winning journalist whose work on football corruption had compelled FIFA head honcho Sepp Blatter to ban him from all official functions? But Jennings has been chasing bad and crooked sports officials for three decades and his four books justify his claim that football is crooked from top to bottom. The passion keeps him continuing his pursuit for truth and in the process, a few scalps.

But Gavin MacFadyen, the visiting professor at the university encouraged all us scribes, despite the restrictions and the obstacles paved before us, to continue to persevere. When asked what skills and qualities were needed in aspiring reporters, he said: Its not so much (about) skills, its mania. If youre a maniac and really suspicious and compulsive youre going to do well, youll get the skills.

That was last year but MacFadyen has since made significant progress and made headlines and his images have made the TC clips worldwide as a great supporter of Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks which made headlines over the past weeks and threatened to bring diplomacy to its knees.

MacFadyen was the man who sat with us foreign journalists, talking about passion, the need to push the envelope, the requirement that investigative journalism takes you to the edge and that theres no substitute for the truth.

These days, he is unreachable, perhaps a choice which he opted for. He seems over-indulged and immersed with the Assange affair on which he makes no secret that he is committed to. His name may not appear on the front pages like socialite Jemima Khan whose ex-husband was Pakistani cricketer-turned politician Imran Khan, but his whole-hearted commitment to free speech is something that should be admired.

Like Jennings, he makes no bones about addressing issues that affect society as whole, especially when it comes to something that they believe in. MacFadyen may now be impossible to reach for an interview, but as he taught us, perseverance always pays. As our search for the illusive intervi! ew conti nues, be assured that the readers of theSun will be the first to read about him, WikiLeaks and Assange. Wish me luck as I try and track him down while he may be having a quiet turkey dinner somewhere in the British Isles. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all our readers.

R. Nadeswaran hopes to touch base with his former guru who has much more to tell the world which yearns for the unadulterated truth. Comments: citizen-nades@thesundaily.com


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