A tale of two journalists
Journalism free from government constraint is not for everybody. It certainly was not for Richard Nixon while he was US president. Unrestrained investigative journalism of the Watergate variety ultimately pushed Congress in the direction of potential impeachment, and shoved Nixon on to an exiting helicopter.
Neither is aggressive journalism necessarily appropriate for every nation in every stage of development. Journalists need to be properly paid (so that they do not rely on bribes for an income), and they require a professional education to reduce sensationalism and reporting errors.
It certainly is not for China, which presently has in detention more journalists than anyone. But, to tell the truth, for all its vaunted First Amendment independence and whatever other virtues, journalism sometimes is not for me, either. Although a long-time reporter, editor and columnist, I am repelled by the crass commercialism and dumbing down of the US news media.
Such reservations aside, some of the most unforgettable characters I have met in life have been journalists. At the top of the list, surely, are Bob Woodward of The Washington Post and Ching Cheong of The Straits Times, in Singapore. And these two larger-than-life characters, whom I know personally in different ways, could not be more different, even as they are both now in the news.
Woodward was in all his glory this past week when a former top FBI official, now 91, admitted that he was 'Deep Throat'. This was the salacious moniker given to the chief confidential source for the series of sensational stories on the Watergate scandal that led to a Pulitzer for The Washington Post.
The self-outing by Deep Throat - after some four decades of hard-kept secrecy - authenticated Woodward and his sidekick Carl Bernstein's unwavering assertion over the years that not only had their key source not been fabricated (as critics had charged) but that he was a highly creditable whistle-blower (indeed - the FBI's No 2 at the time).
Working for The Washington Post for decades, Woodward is America's high priest of the confidential source, and while US journalists are in disrepute these days, it is frightening to think what would become of America without them - or at least without the best of them.
This brings me to Ching, a China correspondent for a leading Asian newspaper. I have known him for years as a quality reporter. While in hot pursuit of secret documents concerning the late Zhao Ziyang , a former top official known to be opposed to Beijing's clenched-fist handling of the Tiananmen crackdown, my friend fell foul of Chinese authorities.
For the past several weeks, he has been kept in out-of-touch detention, allegedly on charges of spying. His wife and his newspaper's management vehemently deny the charges.
Beijing needs to accept that what will hurt China is not new revelations about Tiananmen, but a slow reversion to some new, modified version of Maoism, with its closed borders, closed minds and lack of vigorous intellectual debate.
Chinese journalism itself may be currently anaemic, but some of its journalists (who have to tread carefully - or else) are absolutely heroic and respect journalists like Ching for his dedication to the craft of trying to tell the truth.
I personally do not know for sure whether he is guilty of any charge, but I would be willing to bet that, like Woodward, his work will receive far higher commendation from history than those who would seek to repress or discredit it.
Tom Plate, a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy, is the founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network
Distributed by the UCLA Media Centre
