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| Prof. Michael Ignatieff |
"It calls people to come out to the circus. It's ruined by pretension and high-mindedness. Journalists are not there to pronounce absolution on a fallen world. They're not there to call us to a better life.
"They are there to show us who we are and how we live...
"My point about our trade would be: it cannot be journalism unless it is free. Societies without freedom do not have journalism: they have propaganda...
"So journalism trades on human freedom, and freedom is there to be abused, trifled with, to be put to ignoble uses. It cannot be otherwise. Freedom is an unruly virtue. It ceases to be freedom if it allows itself to be policed to worthy ends.
"But the trade does have some ends worth pursuing. A journalism that doesn't defend its right to offend, that doesn't tweak noses and laugh at the naked emperor, is not worth fighting for.
"But the trade does have some ends worth pursuing. A journalism that doesn't defend its right to offend, that doesn't tweak noses and laugh at the naked emperor, is not worth fighting for.
"A journalism that doesn't stand up for the powerless will soon become a tool of the powerful. Equally, a journalism that wrecks lives will soon find itself abandoned by its readers."
Prof. Michael Ignatieff - from a speech on Nov. 20, 2012
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| "A journalism that wrecks lives will soon find itself abandoned by its readers." |
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