Journalists are often seen as ”monsters”, chasing the story no matter the cost, all in the name of sensation. This is sadly far from the truth.
There is an adage that if one really wants to know who a person is, then walk a mile in that person’s shoes.
Being a journalist in South Africa is anything but easy. For those who are quick to assassinate a journalist’s character, consider how you will fair if walking that mile.
It is a journey full of pitfalls, tension, stress and anxiety. It is certainly not a mile that is comfortably navigated.
Journalists often get chased away by undereducated police members for not understanding our right to be at a crime scene, while journalists even get assaulted by members of the public for simply doing their job.
There was a case this week when one of the Advertiser’s reporters was manhandled on a suicide scene. The verbal abuse against the journalist continued days after the incident.
Really? Who has walked in the shoes of this particular journalist to level cruel judgments against him, and to incite violence?
But this happens too often against journalists in general who are seen as hyenas devouring a story as if it is a piece of meat.
Journalists are often told what they should write and shouldn’t write. They are emotionally bombarded, criticised, threatened, ridiculed, mocked and chased away as if they resemble Frankenstein’s monster.
Journalists deal with the harsh reality of life daily; they are tasked to report on the brutality and coldness of life’s horrors to their best of their ability, even though they themselves suffer from trauma. Hardly do they receive a word of gratitude.
As journalists we go to crime scenes and we see dead bodies, while we visit places that no person would tread, but we have to – the community demands the news. We also get scared but we embrace the unknown for the sake of the truth.
It is the mile we are willing to walk.
Throughout the ordeal, journalists are still expected to keep calm and remain friendly.
As journalists, we have to deal so many times with the pain, heartache and suffering of victims.
Sadly, the anguish and anger journalists also experience are hardly considered. At night we take it home with us – the remnants of a body, the blood on the scene and the tragedy of another horrific death.
Take for example the sickening hijacking of Teagrin Morris whose body was dragged outside a moving hijacked vehicle for 8.5m.
The public is hardly privy to the behind the scenes raw emotion of it all – but the journalist has to endure it.
We remain on the front lines to ensure a better life for all, battling complaints of power outages, water leaks and lack of service delivery. It is all part of the job. But when things go south, then the journalist – first the hero of the public – quickly becomes the victim.
Are we monsters? No. Unfeeling and uncaring or just wanting to get that story? No. We do it for the public so that they can be informed and remain safe. After all, we care about our public and their safety and their needs, all the while having to stay objective.
Sure, maybe we have become desensitised – some more than others – but who can blame journalists in a land of violence and death?
Still, no one really considers the impact that this blood-soaked land has upon journalists who become the constant carriers of terrible images, and who without choice has to live with the memories of broken people.
The demands of this job does eventually seep like tangible darkness in your mind, because nothing can insulate you from this crazy world. You are after all supposed to remain ”ice cold” in your duties.
And when the alarm goes off in the morning, you tackle the bull by the horns once again.
Some journalists do quit. I remember a former colleague who covered a slaughter of an entire family, interviewing the kind young son who turned out to be the killer. This journalist just walked away from the news and never looked back.
At times we have regrets about how we report on stories, and sometimes we consider how we could have handled people differently, but in reality no journalist likes being intrusive and being labelled as ”uncaring”.
But it is the job we do, and if you knew what we went through, you would see the darkness that lurks in the corners of people’s souls and in the shadows of this tainted Rainbow Nation.
But we remain the Fourth Estate.
So before crucifying the media, walk in our shoes – it is an eye-opener.
