A consumer news medium in no culture or situation can declare its objectivity, fairness and communication integrity when gate-keeping decisions are influenced by factors that are unseen and unknown—such as occurs with “cash for news coverage.” This is especially true in societies that claim to be democratic and civil and humane. An attempt to present truth in a fair and objective manner and in a known context must be seen as a universal value when the value of truthfulness is declared, either explicitly or implicitly. — International Index of Bribery for News Coverage (2003)
Reading Luis Nassif’s latest jeremiad on the decay of civilization at Veja magazine (Editora Abril, Brazil) — I am in the process of translating it as I wait for some business papers to arrive by Fedex so I can actually get something useful done — I find myself adding to my growing background file on “bribery of journalists.”
The term here in Brazil is jabaculê or jabá.
A 2003 study by Institute for Public Relations on the subject was scheduled to be repeated every two years, but was never run again, as far as I can tell. See also, for example,
In that case, however, it is not clear how well-founded the “bribery” charges are.
The following description of the situation in present-day Nigeria is not far from what is observed in some sectors of the Brazilian press, meanwhile.
Source:Oloruntola Sunday, MASS MEDIA ETHICS IN NIGERIA:THE PROBLEMS FACING THE NIGERIAN JOURNALISTS. Lagos Papers in English Studies Vol. 1: 58-68 (2007).
ETHICAL DILEMMA FOR NIGERIAN JOURNALISM: Despite the introduction of code of ethic for Nigerian journalists and the setting of the Nigerian Press Council, there are other ethical issues, which are part of the overall problems in the society. These include sycophancy. Character assassination pressure, Afghanistan, bribery, moonlighting, sensationalism, self-censorship, plagiarism, advertorial, deception and faking stories among others.
Afghanistan?!
The term is actually “Afghanistanism” (the English in this paper is a bit on the creative side.)
… the practice of writing about far-away issues while shying away from tackling the problems at home. It originally applied to editorial writing but had come to be applied to all forms of journalistic writings. Dare (2000) points out that during the Buhari era, commentators and analysts took to Afghanistanism, writing earnestly and candidly about tyranny and human rights violations in virtually every spot on the globe except Nigeria. He however added that all those other places were simply a metaphor for Nigeria. Afghanistanism can be as a result of fear or lack of courage. Since charity should begin at home, if the mass media shy away from tackling serious local or national problems by pre-occupying themselves with harmless discussions of issues which are largely irrelevant to a majority of their audience, then the journalists who work in these media are irresponsible and unethical, failing in their duty which the society expects them to perform with courage and dedication.
On the work of the Nigerian Press Council in creating an ethical code for Nigerian journalists, see
Side project: Translate this into Portuguese with a note for Lusophone friends: You are not alone.
I am also reading some interesting work on ‘gongo’ among journalists in the Cameroons and the culture of bribery among Philippines journalists.
One point in which I disagree with Nassif is over the “unprecedented” brutality of the Veja journalism of the smear campaign.
I have been reading a fascinating little book by Sebastião Niery recently called Grandes Pecados da Imprensa, for example.
His first-hand account of the smear campaigns mounted in the press to discredit Juscelino Kubitschek as personally corrupt after the 1964 coup in Brazil have a familiar ring to them.
If Veja boasts of practicing “The New Lacerdism,” you should really have a look at the old Lacerdism. Those endlessly gabbling banana-republican fascists were really something else.
The worst thing is that my grandfather’s tax dollars probably helped pay for that campaign, too.
Filed under: Brazil, Journalism, Media | Tagged: afghanistan, afghanistanism, Brazil, bribery, cameroons, coercion, corruption, ethics, ethics in journalism, gongo, Journalism, journalistic ethics, nigeria, philippines, veja
