JOURNALISTS risk losing the trust of their audiences when the basic work of establishing facts is weakened, Australian Associated Press (AAP) editor-in-chief Andrew Drummond told the 8th Pacific Media Summit in Savusavu.
Drummond said the responsibility of journalists was particularly important when covering issues such as elections and the passage of legislation because audiences relied on journalism to understand what was happening.
“These are the times when the responsibility of journalists is crucial,” he said.
Drummond said misinformation remained a major risk in journalism and reinforced the need for journalists to maintain the standards of their profession.
He said journalists had a responsibility to establish facts and provide audiences with information gathered from reliable sources.
“Information gathering from primary sources, as factual as possible, is our core role.
“Journalists don’t have to be designated fact-checkers to fight misinformation.”
He said verification was part of journalism itself, with AAP maintaining a fact-checking operation as an aid for journalists.
Drummond referred to the link between facts, trust and a shared understanding of what was happening in society.
He said ethical and professional journalism remained important in an environment where audiences were exposed to large amounts of information.
For journalists, he said, the responsibility began with how information was gathered.
Drummond said primary sources remained central to that work and journalists needed to establish information as factually as possible before presenting it to their audiences. He stressed that journalism’s role was not simply to pass information from one place to another but to establish facts through proper information gathering.
