tim's experiment

What sort of people are becoming journalists these days, I wonder? I say this because last weekend the Hong Kong Journalists Association called for all local journalists to be recalled from Japan, apparently because it was too dangerous. Even more surprisingly, later in the week it was reported that most of the local reporters had in fact returned to Hong Kong. This seems to me to be a shameful episode. The events in Japan are a tragedy. They are also, as tragedies often are, a tremendous story and journalists should be eager to cover it. Hong Kong people are entitled to know what is going on, and that knowledge is best provided by Hong Kong reporters who speak the local language and share its culture and interests. Reporting natural disasters is demanding and occasionally dangerous. It is also an important and necessary service which journalists perform for the rest of the community.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association has a legitimate role in this area, in urging employers to ensure that journalists who are sent on potentially hazardous assignments are properly prepared, equipped and insured. It is not the Associaton’s job to chicken out on behalf of its members.   I am afraid the leadereship of the association is in danger of appearing a bunch of pretentious pussies pontificating about points of ethics, while forgetting some basic reporting rules, like “get to where the action is.”  I am not suggesting that reporters should be encouraged to be rash and foolish. But ruling a whole country off the map because of a potential nuclear problem is going beyond caution to cowardice. For reporters who think this was a good idea I can only recommend PR.