By Zakir Husain

LET me start with something close to my heart. There is something of lasting value I refer to as journalistic integrity. That ‘commodity’ has, in my view, come under stress and becoming scarce. But its value like all scarce commodities is even higher than before. This writer is a much retired, much relaxed, but not redundant, public health physician with long national and international experience. He claims no credential of a journalist or political analyst. Yet he has trodden paths where ‘angels fear to tread’. This could be yet another occasion.
   A word on the world around. Our world today is troubled and turbulent. The comfort and assurance of traditional norms and givens in international affairs and within specific states have come under unfamiliar and undue stress.
   Major political military powers can launch unprovoked armed conflicts; invent ‘preemptive war’, and ‘exterminate terrorists’, for example. These acts spawned aberrations like detention on mere suspicion and without charge rather than on evidence, torture under interrogation, even killing in pursuit, to name a few.
   More to our concern, violations of old norms occur not just in fledgling young democracies but, alarmingly, in mature and model democracies who preach rule of law and human rights.
   All of the above throw up new and formidable challenge to media in general and journalists in particular. These are not good old times, not when business as usual is relevant or good enough. Also, these are times when that precious commodity called journalistic integrity, namely freedom to tell the story with neutral but persuasive analyses of issues behind the story, is precariously poised. Freedom from fear of incarceration or gentle seduction is a valuable asset but no longer assured. Yet, that is a right not to be surrendered cheaply or without demur.
   Journalistic independence stands compromised even in the professedly most free media regime in a powerful state. Like a contagion, this has afflicted many weaker and younger states too; ironically because media, to my mind, has a higher responsibility to inform and educate the public and counsel the state in struggling democracies.
   So these are difficult times. The media worldwide faces formidable challenges.
   This writer, as stated, is not a journalist or an analyst. Yet, I have had the pleasure of contributing to New Age, more than occasionally. Indeed, writing for New Age (and another Dhaka daily earlier) has been essentially for the pleasure – the pleasure of thinking aloud and alone, and sharing thoughts and emotions with whoever might care to be concerned.
   It is a small though uneven world. I feel we cannot escape the obligation to keep in touch with events and trends both within and outside our own country and region. As concerned citizens we cannot ignore the world around us.
   New Age has been making efforts and has run essays and internet comments on current international affairs and global trends, and to my personal pleasure by picking up many of the ‘countercurrent’ thoughts. That is what redeems and rejuvenates alternative views that do not get the coverage they truly deserve.
   I commend New Age for beating a less-travelled track.
   An English-language daily in Bangladesh is to my mind an adventure. Readership is limited; constraints are abundant; contributors are not easy to find and engage.
   But New Age, chose to dare, claim to be different, and made a loud bang. Only an envious or unkind commentator could see this new daily as an ‘upstart’. Those very few, if there are, do not include this writer.
   Yes, I have contributed columns to the New Age, and have never failed to enjoy doing so. What struck me most is the freshness, the innovative style, the verve and vigour, even courage in New Age editorials, columns, and comments covering a diversity of issues – something not common in many established Dhaka dailies.
   Courage is a commodity getting harder to produce and protect. When courage combines with conviction, with rational ideas and evidence, it is worth the risk and cost.
   But then we have to be realistic and work within the limits of the possible at a given time and place. Whoever demands absolute integrity from the editors and journalists could be asking for the moon. That said, there will hopefully some among many who will dare to test the waters before accepting the unacceptable. I like to believe New Age will be among those few, given its track record so far.
   I do not think New Age has been a ‘rebel’ with or without a cause. Nor perhaps the label of ‘avant garde’ would fit New Age. What I enjoy and esteem more is the ‘breathe fresh air’, that ‘dare to be different’ attitude. Is that without risk? Probably not. Is that worth it? My response: resoundingly yes.
   What is creation or innovation without an element of risk? Mind you, many risks are more perceived than real. The more one submits to fear the more fearful one becomes.
   Political essays and analyses when objective and unbiased will not please all quarters. But then if New Age does remain objective and open minded, contributes columns with merit and mettle, what more to demand?
   On the positive side, I have witnessed a great increase (explosion if you like) of young talent in all sections of the media industry. This was not the case twenty years ago. That is why media owners and editors might wish to make long-term investments by recruiting and retaining young talent along with the old and established. That investment will earn good returns in quality and sophistication.
   My own feeling is: New Age endears more those young in age, those modern in outlook, and those open to experiment and experience. I would encourage that. Because creativity comes from the young at heart and courageous of mind. The young with talent surely deserve more encouragement and lenience for fostering creativity and unflagging energy.
   Our problem is the tendency to dismiss the young and the eager too quickly. A nation stagnates with ageing leaders, be it in politics, science or industry or technology. So could the media vegetate in the comfort of renown once it had earned but no longer deserves.
   Ageing in humans is a physiological process that cannot be stopped or reversed. With ageing, newspapers in this electronic age and instant communication could easily become redundant and die prematurely. Worse still, with time and toll, it could become mundane and sterile, safe and secure, or even senile.
   As one who subscribed New Age from its birth and contributed to its columns in past years, I do not wish New Age that kind of ageing. When maturity brings serendipity there is a cost attached, which I call mediocrity and moderation (in the absence of more appropriate phrases). New Age need not aspire to be lazy and flabby, let alone sterile or senile. I know that might be a tall order. But those who dare to be different have to aim high.
   So, I wish to conclude with few of my random thoughts.
   New Age need not fall into a predictable pattern; need to cull new materials from whatever source or origin outside conventional sources, produce fresh insights without inhibition or self-regulation, and refuse to toe the line of fashionable or famous newspapers with world fame often not earned by journalistic independence and linguistic excellence.
   Self-regulation is not self-intimidation at least according to this writer. I can attest to that in my line of work for decade and a half. More ideas and opportunities have been aborted by intimidation or self-imposed inhibitions.
   New Age has to keep thinking and doing better, and experimenting with new features. For example, news reporting as the staple feed could add some statistical and analytical element to reports of accidents, droughts, and local popular movements addressing local needs. Meanings behind topical events need to be explored.
   Also, news features (single page) on science, cosmology, history, and global issues could be tried out. To start with one-page supplements, to test the waters. These are of immense educational merit.
   Nothing on earth, in final reckoning, is neutral, not even reporting. But objective reporting and responsible reporting (and analysis) could go together. In short, a newspaper to remain popular and relevant must offer some qualitative value. With satellite TV most topical and world news become stale by the time it gets printed. News is most perishable item. But finding meaning and inferring causes and trends are not. More often than not, there is a story behind the story waiting to be told.
   The tie (or tussle if you like) between regulation often tantamount to control on one hand and freedom of expression and press autonomy on the other shall not go away. Frictions will remain. The choice could be between ‘confrontation’ and ‘management’; the former could induce trauma and deplete resources while the latter could help co-existence without clear winners or losers. In our times, even truth has become a relative value.
   Similarly, freedom is not absolute but is relative; freedom brings responsibility, better not arbitrarily imposed from outside. Self-regulation alone or by group consensus ultimately is better, even at the risk of few initial missteps.
   Yes, all of this easier said than done. But then who achieved true distinction in life without striving hard and aiming high? Can New Age truly dare? Four years is a blip in the media world. I wish New Age many more anniversaries with accomplishments to follow. Most of all, I do not wish New Age loses its spirit of enquiry into truth and its ability to innovate and experiment, its agility and energy. The future is not ours to tell.
   
   Dr Zakir Husain is a retired public health physician