Mitali cautions sports journalists on objectivity

Sports and Culture, Protais Mitali, has urged local sports journalists to always strive to remain as objective as possible in their reporting or risk losing public trust.

Monday, March 04, 2013

Sports and Culture, Protais Mitali, has urged local sports journalists to always strive to remain as objective as possible in their reporting or risk losing public trust.The minister made the appeal while opening a one-week seminar for sports journalists on Monday, whose theme is "Olympic Values and Professional Ethics”, which is organised by the Rwanda Olympic and Sports Committee. It is taking place in Kigali.He said, "In journalism, being objective is very important; you can decide to criticise but always remain objective, report things the way they are and not the way you want them to be.”"Your sector is important in national development because without the media, nothing can be achieved; we (government) need you as partners in development but you also need to be responsible citizens and report responsibly.”Mitali urged journalists from both print and electronic media outlets to also give space or airtime to the positive stories and not just wait for when things go wrong to start criticising (negatively).