Wednesday 28 October 2020

HAROLD EVANS - "Tie yourself to the mast of truth"

 Harold Evans "Journalist who at the Sunday Times became the most admired newspaper editor of his generation" died this year at the age of 92.

FROM BBC SOUNDS  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7cm4s

In February 2018, BBC journalist Razia Iqbal travelled to New York to interview a newspaper man whose name was a byword for serious investigative journalism. From his flat in New York, Razia Iqbal spoke to Sir Harold Evans about giving voice to the voiceless, risking going to prison and changing British law in his lifelong pursuit of the truth.

"What is the role of the press and journalists in the context of what you have just described 'of a dishonest presidency'?

"Tie yourself to the mast of truth.  When they do what they are doing with guns and taking money from the gun manufacturers at the same time as giving gun manufacturers immunity for the slaughter that the gun manufacturers create and profit from, then it is so disgusting you should get to the bottom of the matter.  And then you are to say, 'Who are the people responsible for this?'

"What would you say to someone who is 19 or 20 who is thinking about journalism today.  What would you say to them is essential for them to think about?"

"To make clear things that are otherwise obscure is itself a virtue so that would be a contribution to journalism.  WT Stead said it.  He saw journalism as the argos ide organ that would be watching everything that went on and that is what I hope the press would be.  So you have to ask questions all the time.  And, don't pretend before you ask a question that you know the answer."

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