A journalist's life

A Buddhist monk performing self-immolation during the war in Vietnam

GLAMOROUS is nowhere near a depiction of a journalist's life. When I joined, I didn't even have a desk of my own, let alone my own workstation.
 A fellow who joined a year after I did got it all wrong when he walked into the office with tie and all, and asked to be shown to his place. There was none, and he lasted a short month, perhaps realising it wasn't his cup of tea.
 There were always many people running about the newsroom but I must say that the best of times would be after that story was done and I'd find one corner of the building to sit and reflect for a while, just me and my pack of cigarettes.

 Journalists meet many people in the course of their work but ironically, by and large, they are lonely people whose devotions are only to that story they are working on. Many-a-times, they even forget about the last one they wrote.
A good journalist, almost always stays out of the news. He will be there merely as an observer first and second, to chronicle events happening before their eyes. Rarely do they attempt to change the course of history unless when it is a matter of life and death and events that may adversely impact humanity.
If a war correspondent, for example, comes to know of an ambush planned by forces fighting those of his own nation, he is not expected to keep such information to himself and let history take its course. At such as extreme situation, he will shed his role as a journalist and let his patriotism to his nation take over.
 During height of the Vietnam war, when Buddhist monks were aggressively protesting the appointment of President Ngho Dinh Diem (a Catholic) as leader of the then South Vietnam, a few went as far as committing self-immolation (see picture above).
 In one such instance, an AP photographer, Malcolm Browne, took a picture of a monk on fire, sitting on a street in Saigon and facing certain death. The picture won the Pullitzer prize for the drama and tragedy of the war it depicted although later, journalism schools around the world debated whether Browne should have acted as a human being first and try to save the monk, instead of clicking away with his camera.
 Journalists deal with this dilemma all the time in the course of their work and many times too, they have to deal with conscience when writing their stories as no matter how hard they will try to maintain their independence, their actions and stories they write will always be seen as having a certain degree of bias by some segments of society.
 In the course of my job as a both a reporter and later an editor, I have always told new journalists that they must be ready to make some of the biggest sacrifices if at all they want to succeed in the field. And I am not talking just about the risk of being shot when covering a war or being clobbered while covering a mass demonstration.
 Journalists have little social life. If a journalist says he/she has many close friends, chances are most of their close friends, if not all, are journalists too.
 When in the company of other journalists, the group will eventually become one big congregation of skeptics, of people who largely think that the truth is still hidden somewhere. At times, for those not in the line of work, I suppose it could get a bit irritating.
 Journalists are also generally poor time keepers, except on matters concerning their work. I always tell my daughters that if they can avoid it, not to get into an emotional relationship with a journalist. One, they seldom turn up on time, second, they sometime don't turn up at all. There will always be that last minute assignment to spoil a weekend planned for that quiet romantic dinner or the movies.
 In my early years, I leave the house before the sun rises and return when the sun was long gone. I spent more time in the newsroom than I did at home. There were times when I felt guilty but I made it a point to spend weekends with the family.
 One good thing about this job is that there are not that many outstanding work to be done. All stories becomes history once the newspaper goes to print and tomorrow is a brand new day in every sense of the word. So, whenever I went on leave, I was able to forget the office entirely and just enjoy the time with my family, knowing that when I get back to the newsroom, everything will start fresh.
 Journalists also tend to show little emotion. What emotions they have, they will instead try to paint them in the stories they present. It is hardly surprising therefore, that people tend to find journalists as being 'cold' individuals. Many hardly talk about themselves, choosing instead to live the most part of their lives in their own little world.
 Quite a number too have made the ultimate sacrifice to tell the world their stories. Every year, scores of our own are killed in the line of duty, mostly in covering war and other violent conflicts. Some were killed by parties unhappy with the stories the journalists wrote.
 Everytime a journalist is killed in the line of duty, we moaned the loss of one of our own. Their bodies were usually quietly returned to their loved ones for burial without much fanfare.
 Despite all that, however, we never consider ourselves as heroes. Instead, just like that guy who counts money behind the counter at the street-corner bank, we are only doing our job.

ENDS