By Shamim Ashraf
Staff Reporter, The Daily Star
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Hosted by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Before coming to the United States from Bangladesh, I didn't have any clear understanding how only once sentence can be the foundation of this nation's freedom of speech, religion and press through the ages. And as I complete my fellowship, I wonder whether those who articulated this freedom in only 45 words knew exactly what a great achievement they were going to make.

Thanks to the responsibility shown by the custodians of this freedom, especially the media, the First Amendment has become an institution for personal freedom and an open society.

After working in a Third World developing country like Bangladesh, where for some journalists freedom is opportunism, I have reason to wonder when I notice the objectivity, fairness and enterprise in American newsrooms.

The watchdog role of the vibrant independent media in the United States—best displayed recently through reports on the CIA's secret prisons, the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, torture at Abu Ghraib prison, wiretapping, and earlier in the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War—has earned my high respect. This is the epitome of a free and responsible press.

Although Americans themselves may not appreciate it, the media are a powerful means here for informing people about their rights and upholding the values of democracy.

Although the Bangladeshi media enjoy freedom (with some exceptions during military interventions), journalists face strong obstruction in investigating government officials' corruption and irregularities due to a culture of secrecy. Officials often resort to taking some legal shelter provided by the Official Secrets Act, rules of business and service rules for government officials to block the passage of information.

By contrast, this country has the First Amendment, the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and sunshine laws, especially the open records system and shield laws such as the one in Florida. These are good models for me and on my return to Bangladesh, I intend to work on passing a right-to-information act.

Although the incumbent military-backed government of Bangladesh has tried to put some types of censorship on the media, it has not succeeded totally due to the strong media role in society. For example, the press is a major reason for the government's failure in its attempt to send into exile two former prime ministers (although the government denies this attempt).

But much needs to be done to raise the standard of Bangladesh's press, especially the ethical standard.

Unlike those in my country, publishers here are not out to interfere in editorial matters.

As I have observed first-hand, the media here in the United States are constantly seeking to provide information in an objective way without considering who is hurt or helped.

But reporters in Bangladesh, sometimes even in big media outlets, are discouraged to write stories that might hurt major advertisers. It is not only that any story can be shelved forever if it hurts the interest of the owners or the advertisers; reporters have to write stories at the dictate of the newspaper bosses, even if it involves quoting imaginary anonymous sources to attack certain parties. Newspaper ethics have little to do there.

I am very impressed with the role of media watchdogs like American Journalism Review (www.ajr.org) and the Columbia Journalism Review (www.cjr.org), and I strongly feel the absence of such watchdogs in my country. I remember a recent criticism of journalists contributing to political parties in the United States and feel sorry for the fact that some Bangladeshi newspapers nakedly support certain political parties.

Dishonesty and inaccuracy by individuals in the field also remains a huge task to do away with.

Although the media, especially the broadcast media, is flourishing in Bangladesh, lack of objectivity and fairness stand in the way of its earning high esteem. If one reads several newspapers, he may get a different version of the same incident.

During my five-and-half-month stint as an Alfred Friendly Fellow, I found that commitment, dedication, discipline, firm journalistic drive and professionalism are some of the traits that distinguish top-class newspapers like the Post-Gazette. I'm simply impressed with the teamwork, between the reporters and editors.

Many reporters in Bangladesh file a story without cross-checking the information adequately and without caring much to make it a balanced one, thus putting the burdens on the copy editors to correct the information and make it readable."What are the copy editors there for?" many reporters would argue.

And reporters often submit their stories after deadline when editors do not have enough time to pay necessary attention to all the stories to develop them.

Copy editors would sometimes yell at reporters saying they have put the lead under the third or fifth paragraph. Stories sometimes do not have any clear focus, lack quotes and people's voice. Many times they are merely statements of high officials without any good analysis.

From my own experience at the Post-Gazette, I can say the practice of discussion with the editor before going on assignment can solve these problems drastically. It gives the reporter a clear understanding what he needs to do to get the best out of an assignment, what all the angles are, how it can be a balanced story, and who may be his sources. When the reporters return to the newsroom, the editors are also available here to help them get a good story focus and also structure.

Although the chief reporter, while distributing assignments to reporters, tells them how to cover a story, it is not at all enough, and not effective like close work between the reporters and editors.

On return to my home newsroom, I'll try to convince my bosses to introduce this kind of discussion.

For my colleagues in Bangladesh I am taking plenty of reading materials, tip sheets and lists of Internet sources collected from what I have learned during my AFPF organized seminars and my work at the Post-Gazette.

The Poynter website (www.poynter.org) will be very helpful to all in my home newsroom as it has a lot of resources on ethics, reporting, writing, editing, design, graphics and online journalism. Among the books I bought, "50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer," "Interviews That Work," "The Investigative Reporter's Handbook," "The Art and Craft of Feature Writing" and "America's Best Newspaper Writing" will help my colleagues a lot.

Besides holding a two-day workshop in the capital of Dhaka, I'll hold three other workshops in three divisional headquarters in Bangladesh in November to talk about reporting, ethics in journalism, writing, self-editing and use of Internet resources with some discussions on digital convergence and journalism in the U.S.

My Pittsburgh PG mentor Greg Victor is traveling to Bangladesh to assist me in conducting the workshops. Besides, I'll also invite two guest speakers from Dhaka to speak on reporting and writing and 2000 Alfred Friendly Fellow Raffat Binte Rashid to speak on what role the fellowship experience played in her professional life.

I am also planning to create a website of my own where I shall put all the resources for use by other journalists. As I keep abreast of developments in U.S. journalism, I'll post those on my website.

The Fellowship, especially the part of my work with the PG, has made me more sure of my strengths. I'm taking with me the best examples of journalism and I leave with a new eye and ideas, determined to devote myself to raise the standard of journalism in my country.