Many English medium journalists in UAE seem to be brainwashed on press releases 24/7, that they fail to see a new story or report serious news when it happens right in front of them.
Reporting standards in most of the English newspapers in the UAE are at rock bottom levels and perhaps in all probability feature in any self-worth journalism school's syllabi as 'How not to write articles!'.
A glaring example of deplorable reporting was in published in today's Gulf News. In an article 'Labourer is buried alive as embankment of deep pit caves in', the reporter states how an fatal accident took place in front of the Al Qusais Police Station.
"A team from Dubai Police's Difficult Missions Section tried to rescue the workers but one died due to lack of oxygen. The two other workers sustained serious injuries and were airlifted to Rashid Hospital by Dubai Police's Air Wing." ~ Gulf News
Then the article swerves sharply from the 'death of the worker' on to 'traffic coming to a halt on the road'. The article continues:
"A motorist who got stuck in traffic for an hour, said: "I usually take the airport tunnel and then the Business Bay Bridge to go to my office and face traffic on Beirut Road, but due to the incident, I got stuck in traffic for an hour before reaching the airport tunnel." Another motorist said he became frustrated because motorists were slowing down to watch the rescue operation. " ~Gulf News
Wow, a route map of a stuck driver and how people were frustrated by the traffic - Mind you - it doesn't even matter or strike the reporter that a person died on the side of the road and two more were severely injured and more details can be found out on that. All that matters in the article was why the traffic was not moving!
How about writing on who were the contractors employing these workers when they where in the pit! What was the comment from the company responsible for digging these pits? Where there any safety measures in place for this kind of work?
The Ministry of Labour and the Dubai Government have gone a long way in protecting workers rights. They do crack down on violators of safety measures at workplaces. But the point being - what is the reporter going on about? Doesn't the life of a person matter anymore in Dubai rather than taking a vox pop in the middle of the road about traffic build up. has journalism reached new lows of insensitivity?
In September this year, the Gulf News reported:
Reporting standards in most of the English newspapers in the UAE are at rock bottom levels and perhaps in all probability feature in any self-worth journalism school's syllabi as 'How not to write articles!'.
A glaring example of deplorable reporting was in published in today's Gulf News. In an article 'Labourer is buried alive as embankment of deep pit caves in', the reporter states how an fatal accident took place in front of the Al Qusais Police Station.
"A team from Dubai Police's Difficult Missions Section tried to rescue the workers but one died due to lack of oxygen. The two other workers sustained serious injuries and were airlifted to Rashid Hospital by Dubai Police's Air Wing." ~ Gulf News
Then the article swerves sharply from the 'death of the worker' on to 'traffic coming to a halt on the road'. The article continues:
"A motorist who got stuck in traffic for an hour, said: "I usually take the airport tunnel and then the Business Bay Bridge to go to my office and face traffic on Beirut Road, but due to the incident, I got stuck in traffic for an hour before reaching the airport tunnel." Another motorist said he became frustrated because motorists were slowing down to watch the rescue operation. " ~Gulf News
Wow, a route map of a stuck driver and how people were frustrated by the traffic - Mind you - it doesn't even matter or strike the reporter that a person died on the side of the road and two more were severely injured and more details can be found out on that. All that matters in the article was why the traffic was not moving!
How about writing on who were the contractors employing these workers when they where in the pit! What was the comment from the company responsible for digging these pits? Where there any safety measures in place for this kind of work?
The Ministry of Labour and the Dubai Government have gone a long way in protecting workers rights. They do crack down on violators of safety measures at workplaces. But the point being - what is the reporter going on about? Doesn't the life of a person matter anymore in Dubai rather than taking a vox pop in the middle of the road about traffic build up. has journalism reached new lows of insensitivity?
In September this year, the Gulf News reported:
"Dubai: Two men have been found guilty of causing the accidental death of two workers who fell from the 18th floor of a tower under construction. The Dubai Appeal's Court sentenced the 49-year-old British national, S.K., and 28-year-old Egyptian to one month in jail. The court suspended the prison term for three years, on the condition that the crime will not be repeated. The two will have to jointly pay Dh120,000 in blood money to the families of the Indian victims." ~Gulf News, September 26, 2007
And on October 06, 2007, Gulf News published an article "Compensation for the injured" with the guidelines, rules and compensation details. This was a good article with the aim of making readers aware of safety standards at workplaces under the UAE Federal Labour Law.
Perhaps Gulf News and other newspapers should send some of their reporters back to journalism school to touch up on their news values, basics of writing a news story and researching for a news story. This story is not an isolated story in a single newspaper nor is the post directed against any individual reporter. There are several news stories by other newspapers and reporters in the UAE which are published day after day reeking of indifference and standing out as perfect examples of how to write articles trashing all journalistic norms.
Related Articles:
Labourer is buried alive as embankment of deep pit caves in ~Gulf News, October 21, 2007
Two guilty for workers' fatal plunge ~ Gulf News, September 26, 2007
Compensation for the injured ~Gulf News, October 06, 2007
And on October 06, 2007, Gulf News published an article "Compensation for the injured" with the guidelines, rules and compensation details. This was a good article with the aim of making readers aware of safety standards at workplaces under the UAE Federal Labour Law.
Perhaps Gulf News and other newspapers should send some of their reporters back to journalism school to touch up on their news values, basics of writing a news story and researching for a news story. This story is not an isolated story in a single newspaper nor is the post directed against any individual reporter. There are several news stories by other newspapers and reporters in the UAE which are published day after day reeking of indifference and standing out as perfect examples of how to write articles trashing all journalistic norms.
"There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference."
~Juan Montalvo (Noted Ecuadorian author and essayist)
~Juan Montalvo (Noted Ecuadorian author and essayist)
Related Articles:
Labourer is buried alive as embankment of deep pit caves in ~Gulf News, October 21, 2007
Two guilty for workers' fatal plunge ~ Gulf News, September 26, 2007
Compensation for the injured ~Gulf News, October 06, 2007
1 comment:
its sad. but this is it, how it was predicted, people will slowly become more and more indifferent... a few movies came out in the past about how the future would have violent spectator sports where people kill each other during the game... and you see it; sports are getting more and more violent, and one day, its going to get to a death and people will like it, then more and more, until we end up like that.
scary.
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