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Last Word Esha Aurora
Esha Aurora is a staff writer at Dhaka tribune where she excels at breathing, sleeping, eating and the occasional opinion making
The new face of journalism The world of the Yanukovych leaks and changes to the landscape of news business
There is no way of escaping the facts revealed by the Yanukovych Leaks; Ukraine stands at the fork of a road today. It can go either way – the fight to keep the country together wages on a global stage
B
eing a journalist has always been a dangerous profession. There are daily reports from around the world of murder, intimidation and abduction. Countries like Mexico and Syria are one of the worst places in the world to be a journalist. But what happens when reporting the news is not just done by a select few, but everyone? The Internet has revolutionised mass media. The World Wide Web is a great equaliser. All opinions, big or small, can be expressed and transmitted throughout the world in a matter of seconds. The new buzzword in journalism is “new media” or, to be more precise, social media. We have seen it used throughout the Arab uprising as an instant source of information. The problem arises when everything that is being posted on these websites cannot be verified. There have been times when news outlets would broadcast a story, only to be informed that it was
This is a seriously sinister element of these revelations. What is even more frightening is that fact that the freedom of information, whether imposed or by self-censorship, has left the mass media at the helms of state control W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, M ARC H 14 , 2014
AFP
misinformation. Anyone who uses the Internet is aware of this phenomenon. There is, however, this very recent upsurge in things such as WikiLeaks and Yanukovychleaks.org. Such whistle-blowing websites only function is to reveal secret documents. There is no opinion left behind. It lets the Internet and the rest of the world form an opinion. Following the very basic principle of journalism if you will. The crisis in Ukraine is in such a fluid state that it makes it very hard to analyse - much less predict - how it will ultimately evolve. Amid this chaos that first began on November 30 last year, when deposed president Viktor Yanukovych backed away from an EU trade deal, protests began to take place at Independence Square, which lasted for months. Yanukovych finally fled Ukraine on February 22 this year. Now, here is the clincher. In a bid to get rid of all the secret documents he kept at his home, but not having sufficient time to do so, these documents were promptly dumped into a nearby lake. When the public broke into his home, journalists followed and found some of these documents floating up to the surface of the lake. Some special divers volunteered to fish them out and, within days, they had their hands on a vast amount of the regime’s documents. They created what is known as
the Yanukovych Leaks. You can find all of the salvaged documents there - either scanned or photographed. There is a disconcerting amount of information about state-sponsored crime, corruption, intimidation, and wiretapping. Take the case of Tetyana Chornovol, an investigative reporter who was abducted, beaten and left on the roadside on a freezing night in late December 2013. Investigators attributed the attack to a “road rage” dispute at that time. Not to mention, they found a huge blacklist of journalists. Or the fact that they found papers pertaining to a budget for monitoring mass media. This is a seriously sinister element of these revelations. What is even more frightening is that restrictions on the freedom of information, whether imposed or by self-censorship, have left the mass media under state control. This is not a problem the Internet faces. The Yanukovych leakers could have easily picked a side. They chose not to principally attach a moral judgement to their finds. This is interesting, given the high level of tension in Ukraine right now. Instead, we find ourselves having to judge the good from the bad, whatever our own perspective might be. One cannot entirely disregard the role of traditional media here, because the leaks were picked up by news outlets all over the world and given to us from their own standpoint. But
the face of journalism has changed. Everyone can be a journalist with a click of a button or a hashtag. There is so much information flying out these days that it’s hard not to be confused by it. All kinds of views permeate the global debate. There is no way of escaping the facts revealed by the Yanukovych Leaks; Ukraine stands at the fork of a road today. It can go either way – the fight to keep the country together is being waged on a global stage. Some people seem deeply affected by the corruption while others seem to focus on ethnic divisions. While the Western powers squabble with Russia about the state of Ukraine, the world watches on in fear that is deeply reminiscent of the cold war days. The news today would not be the same without the joint efforts of citizens and journalists. Even when that news is sometimes unverified, or it comes in the shape of a grainy image, the power of social media is undeniable. What is even more undeniable is the fact that we are now able to - for the first time in history - have the ability to shape the perspective of the story. It is not the one that the state wants you to hear or the one that is imposed by selfcensorship. It is the voice of the people whose stories are what journalism is all about. n