THE EMPTY CHAIR | JournalismColloquium

THE EMPTY CHAIR:

TODAY'S JOURNALISM MORALITY QUESTION

Journalism students from Universiti Teknologi Mara come together for the annual colloqium, Journalism in A Pandemic: Adapting and Evolving, conducteed virtually this year.

Source: Youtube

By Diana Syuhada

The role of fire fighters and policemen is to serve people, and this also applies to journalists whereby they have a duty to serve the people by providing reliable news. But without realising, a journalist is more than that as they are the person who is giving a voice to the voiceless.

As an example, the R.AGE journalists did an excellent job in revealing the syndicate of human trafficking among the students from Bangladesh in Malaysia.

‘Desperate in Dhaka’ won the global True Story Award and led to the government drastically reducing the number of student visa approvals from Bangladesh.

This proves that the voiceless has a voice. It is a journalist’s job to amplify it.

Almost everybody gets their data from mass media about global, national, and local affairs.

These facts have very important functions to both print and broadcast journalism that include shaping public opinion, deciding the political agenda, providing a link between government and citizens, serving as a watchdog of government, and affecting socialisation.

The Morality in Journalism

Journalism is a line that connects two points as they deliver the news and information regarding administrative actions by the government to society by following ethics in journalism.

However, when a journalist conducted an interview with an empty chair, to voice out the question and give the answers to the society, it shows that the journalist is a voice for the society, but at the same time, is this an ethical move?

Last year, an issue regarding an Indonesian journalist, Najwa Shihab who interviewed an empty chair went viral on social media. The issue has been discussed by many parties. Some have said that it is not a practice of journalism while others agree that this is part of a journalist’s role.

Andari Karina Anom, lecturer from Binus University, Indonesia said that the journalism landscape in Indonesia is heavily political, as the crises that they have, are political in nature. It is either pro-Jokowi or anti-Jokowi.

Najwa Shihab went viral when she interviewed an empty chair in place of the absent Minister of Health, Dr. Terawan Agus Patronto.

The absent minister was repeatedly invited to the famous political show, MataNajwa, but the invitations were also repeatedly declined.

In the interview session, Najwa asked questions that echoed the feelings and concerns of the people, from discussing the lack of accountability of the government, to his seeming disappearance.

“Some of them think that this is just a way to criticise the government or president through the show and that this is not a practice of journalism. It is just one of the ways to take down the president,” said Andari.

Nonetheless, many supported it and believe that the Minister should be on the hypothetical podium to provide explanations to the public and it is a good practice of journalism.

“However, we cannot see it as black and white. Maybe we should look again at the definition of journalism,” she stated.

Making a news interesting

A potential interviewee or source has the right to either come or not to the interview session. It is up to the journalist’s skill on how they approach their sources to talk to the media.

Andari also stated that this is like half of popular shows and journalism as well. If we are talking about a popular show, we talk about the entertainment value, therefore it should have entertaining ways of providing news.

“The way a journalist provides info needs to be entertaining. Even if the information surrounds topics of crisis or war, the journalist needs to find a good angle to make it interesting so that the public will be attracted to read it,” she added.

She did agree that that kind of interview is interesting, and can attract people but to criticise, we must think and check the context. What is the main purpose of this interview? Is it for publicity or journalism?

After the video interview went viral, Jokowi’s supporters claimed the action taken by the journalist was cyberbullying and filed a criminal complaint against Najwa Shihab.

Interviewing an empty chair is not a new idea

The video where Najwa Shihab interviewing empty chair in a show name MataNajwa went viral on social media..

Source: Coconuts

Started in 1924 when the Progressive vice-presidential nominee Burton K.Wheeler debated on invisible President Calvin Coolidge.
In 1949, John Foster Dulles against an absent Herbert Lehman.
In 2011, the American philosopher William LaneCraig invited Richard Dawkins to debate on the existence of God.
On August 20, 2012, American actor and director Clint Eastwood held an empty chair conversation with President Barack Obama at the Republican National Convention. 
On November 6, 2019, Kay Burley of Sky News empty-chaired James Cleverly, the Chairman of the UK's Conservative Party, after he refused to go on air to be interviewed as previously arranged, despite being physically in the studio building. Burley instead itemised the stories that she stated she wanted to discuss with Cleverly.
On November 28, 2019, Channel 4 News empty-chaired the Prime Minister and leader of the UK's Conservative Party, Baris Johnson, and the leader of the Brexit Party, Nigel Farage, after both failed to appear in a party leaders' election debate on climate change.

A columnist for The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland stated in his article, the act called as empty chairing is the practice of drawing attention to politicians’ refusal to show up, and the aim of it is clearly to embarrass government officials for ducking tough questions.

However, the empty chair is a last-ditch option sometimes used by the media to shame organisations that does not agree to do an interview. It means the behaviours are indefensible and the media will turn to someone else to fill that void.

Most programme makers agree that saying nothing is almost always worse than saying something.

Malaysian journalists have never conducted this kind of interview yet. It is not done with the intention of humiliating the absent interviewee.

The journalist is merely carrying out their duty by voicing out concerns from society so that the government will feel the urgent need to provide answers and explanations to the people as they all have the right to know.