When I went to attend the Hong Kong Baptist University journalism faculty’s interview, the professor asked me a question, “should the government tell truth to residents through the press?” It sounded like a quite easy question to answer; but when it came to me, I hesitated for a long time.
I replied him that it depends. Sometimes the government can lie because the situation was incredibly terrible. In other words, they have to lie, or else the society will panic. For example, we all know the food security problem in China last year; China government appeased the affair as soon as possible, although I did not believe the problem had been solved thoroughly. However, if the government publicizes all the statistics about the examining result for food security, people will be afraid to eat almost everything. So I think maybe the press should play a role to “protect” residence.
I did not doubt about my opinion until I heard the news that BBC pointed out the British government may bribed the International Olympic Committee. After that, the British government put the pressure on BBC, but it seemed like clown since BBC had beyond their control. Then, I knew that how necessary reality is for news. The press has no right to judge an affair, while telling truth is their basic responsibility. The “protect” is actually a kind of deceiving and hurt. Some newspapers which served for the government lose their value as a media. They can give advices in some columns, but the premise is that they report the news truly. In this way, they are able to help residents oversee the government to do a better work.
In conclusion, it is the obligation for the press to tell the truth.
You can never be true about everything, so do the government. It does not matter whether they should tell the truth. It is whether they can admit their fault in time when bad things happen.
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy to always tell truth...
ReplyDeleteOur CC government always hide something,such as the Tian'an Men Square Events,Jasmine Revolution,and so. These matters can cause a huge quake of our society.Sometimes,we can see how brilliant our society is,but we cannot know the darkness it has. So we should always stand in a neutral side.
ReplyDeleteSome times the white lies are harmless, to some extent, we citizens should tolerant the government for some dishonesty, after all they do not meant to hurt us. As for media, I think they are doing more and more badly these years.
ReplyDelete