Politicians and journalists: the best of enemies

A journalist’s duty: holding power to account

“When journalists know statements by politicians are clear lies, they have a duty to say so. If they fail to do so, they undermine the whole political system,” Dorothy said.

She famously called former PM Boris Johnson a “known liar” as part of her MacTaggart lecture and denounced broadcast and radio journalists’ failure to hold him to account during his time as leader of the UK.

As Johnson goes through the current Covid inquiry, there are new opportunities for journalists to hold him to account.

In her address at City, she discussed how the public do not have the time or the resources to fact check every statement made by a politician – which is why it is a journalist’s duty to do so.

She said:

Dorothy took the opportunity of the lecture to release brand new statistics from the Open Society Foundations survey for the very first time. The data surveyed 1,000 people in the UK and 2,000 in the USA in May 2023.

The results painted a worrying picture young people’s trust in democracy. The results found:

• 29 percent of people aged 18-34 in the UK thought having a leader who does not bother with an election was a good way of running a country
• 32 per cent of people in the same age group thought having army rule was a good way of running a country
• Only 52 percent of that same age group thought democracy is a good way to run a country.

Another survey from King’s College London’s Policy Institute found that in Britain, Millennials’ trust in the government was at its lowest on record in 2022, with only 24 per cent expressing confidence in the government.

These results sounded the alarm bells and Dorothy urged politicians, journalists and educators to work together to rebuild trust in the media and in politics.

“Good journalists and politicians are on the same side – the side of truth, the side of democracy,”  said Dorothy.

The Eric Robins Prize

As part of the annual lecture, the Eric Robins Prize is awarded to a recent City graduate for outstanding journalism. Eric was a correspondent for Time Magazine and the award is generously donated by his late partner Marion Kaplan.

Winning the award was Runako Celina (MA Investigative Journalism alumna).

Her groundbreaking pitch for the story “Racism for sale”, while still studying at City, uncovered a Chinese video-making industry that is exploiting vulnerable children across Africa.

The pitch was developed into a high impact story for BBC Africa Eye, for which she was an assistant producer, and the documentary garnered millions of views, breaking audience records across social media.

The story led to investigation by Malawi Human Rights commission, an arrest, and prompted the Chinese Foreign Ministry to issue a very rare apology. She continues to work on Africa and Chinese relations.

Discussing developing the story, she said:

She described winning the award as “absolutely amazing”.