Journalism

Summary of two good articles I read yesterday:

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Let’s shoot the messenger [Link]

With results season, media reports of suicides by failed or underperformed students will increase. The reports often bring graphic details of such attempts.

In fact, no student attempts suicide because of exams, parents, or teachers. One attempts suicide because one is depressed! Exam anxiety or underperformance may be a reason for depression, but it is important that none of such factors are the only reason for the acts. And parents these days are highly educated but poorly informed.

In a research, it was found that if media goes into details of suicides and increases such reporting, the suicide rates increase proportionately. When a campaign forced journos not to report suicide rates, the actual suicides reduced by 80%.

Conclusions:

(1) Parents should know that it is the depression that is the real culprit, not the exams or teachers.

(2) Media should avoid giving detailed accounts of suicides.

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‘No’ to the Olympics of shame [Link]

After recent Chinese crackdown on Tibetan protesters, it has been consistently demanded by the free media that governments should boycott the Beijing Olympic Games. I also wondered how Games are related to human rights. In this article, we get some answers:

International Olympic Committee (IOC) Code of Ethics says,

“Ethics of Olympics are based on the spirit of humanism, fraternity and respect for individuals which inspires the Olympics ideal, and requires the governments of countries that are to host the Olympic Games to undertake that their countries will scrupulously respect the fundamental principles of the Olympics Charter.”

There has been a long history of boycott of the Olympic Games. In 1976, 25 African countries boycotted the Montreal Olympics due to the participation of New Zealand, which had close ties to the South African apartheid (racist) regime.

In 1980, US led a boycott against the Moscow Olympics, which was joined by Japan, Taiwan, West Germany, Canada and 61 other nations.

Conclusions:

(1) Boycotting of the Olympic Games is definitely a powerful tool available to the international community, to highlight their concerns for human rights violations.

(2) As the host of Olympics 2008, China certainly has to be answerable to the international community with regard to the human rights violations against Tibetans.

Ref’: Mint, 4 April

Picture: Dilbert on jurnalists