Respect Vs. verification:

An Asian conundrum

by Manori Wijesekera

Every few weeks, I have a conversation with one of Global Press Journal's (GPJ) Asia reporters about how to cross the imaginary line between respecting an expert source whether it is an emeritus professor, a leading medical consultant or a high-ranking government official - and holding them accountable for the accuracy of what they say.

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I never had this problem when I was a reporter. I think I have a naturally suspicious turn of mind that makes it easy for me to say, "Oh, yeah? Prove it!"

But my reporters in Asia are much nicer women than I, and they are far more respectful of local culture than I ever was.

So I have learned to gently but consistently nudge them to cross the line between respect and verification.

Asian culture is deeply hierarchical and local media often tiptoes around experts and high-ranking government officials, treating them as celebrities from whom each word is like a translucent pearl.

Sometimes, when a GPJ reporter questions them, they are perplexed or (very rarely, thankfully!) they explode in anger.

Recently, a reporter from Nepal told me that, when asked to verify a statement he'd made, a consultant surgeon barked at her, "Who are you to question me?"

He went on to say, "When I am a leader in my profession and everyone accepts my word, what reason have I given you to think I am wrong?"

I was proud to hear that the reporter offered to explain our verification process and show how some of the published sources he'd cited during the interview hadn't backed up his statements.

Our reporter met this source with printouts of her verification and fact-checking and showed him how there were differences and gaps in the data he had quoted. He was impressed, and then spent time to show her more documents to explain the data gaps. He backed up everything he said with actual, published data.

Invisible line

Every day, reporters face this invisible line between being respectful of a source, in keeping with our relational Asian culture, and meeting the high standards of accuracy and verification demanded by editors.

It never gets easier, they say.

But each reporter has developed her own style of balancing both worlds. One reporter says she explains to experts that she is proud of the research and data that are produced in her country and wants to be able to share researchers' work at every opportunity. Every statement backed up with published research helps her cause, she tells the sources.

Another reporter simply blames me, telling her sources that her editor in Colombo demands this verification. She says, "Oh, what to do! That's how difficult she is!"

I've given them carte blanche to use whatever works to get me the verification I expect and to make sure that our desire to respect our sources never stands in the way of having independently verified facts and data in a story.

(Manori Wijesekera is the Regional Editor -Asia for Global Press Journal (GPJ), based in Colombo. She became the Regional Editor for Asia in 2013, pioneering a new model that moved GPJ's regional editors out of the United States. This article was featured in GPJ)