Scrutiny matters more than ever
STATUS QUO IS A VITAL ROLE
TWO weeks ago we lost one of the most admired journalists the UK – and even the world – has ever seen.
Sir Harold Evans was what every young journalist aspires to be: someone who took on the establishment and won.
A man who, through his work on Thalidomide, Bloody Sunday and exposing Kim Philby as a Soviet spy, embodied journalism in that oftcontested phrase the “public interest”
His passing was an important moment to remember the change that journalism can make.
That’s been thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic, during which newspapers have played a vital role in providing clear information to readers as a defence against the fake news and disinformation spreading so wildly online. Newspapers have also shared stories of hope, of unsung heroes and fostered a sense of community when everyone was struggling.
But the pandemic has had a devastating effect on newspaper finances, which were already struggling.
The loss of advertising revenue from Covid has accelerated what was already a decline.
While the online picture is patchy, some titles are making money from online advertising while others are making the paywall work.
Local papers are closing and those that remain are too often having to cut staff, meaning fewer journalists with less time to find the stories that matter.
It’s not a situation any journalist or editor wants to be in and it means that at a local level there is not the scrutiny that politicians and other local decision-makers need.
It also means the pipeline of talent to the nationals is not there.
Evans, of course, didn’t start off at the Sunday Times.
It was at the Northern Echo where he first made his mark as editor in the 1960s, where his campaigns resulted in a national screening programme for cervical cancer and a posthumous pardon for a young man who had been wrongly hanged for murder in 1950.
Journalism, more than many other trades, benefits from more diverse voices who do not just accept the status quo but question it. That matters today, more than ever.