Media Practitioners Cannot Ignore Fact-Checking SOP In News Process - Bernama EiC Arul Rajoo

KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 (Bernama) -- Media practitioners are reminded not to produce news at the expense of rushing through the fact-checking process.

In fact, Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) editor-in-chief Arul Rajoo Durar Raj said media practitioners should not pander to feeding netizens who spread information swiftly without checking the facts first.

On the contrary, he said media practitioners, especially the mainstream media, should stick to the fact-checking or information verification process that has long been practised as part of the strict standard operating procedure (SOP) for producing news.

“Before broadcasting or publishing a news story, a media practitioner must first gather and check background information. After the reporter writes the copy (news story), he or she must review it again before sending it to the editor. 

“If there are any shortcomings, the editor will run another fact-checking process with the reporter before sending the copy to the sub-editor, who will check the copy again before sending it out to the subscribers or publishing it on the portal for readers to view.

“That is why the most important thing when we call it mainstream media, we already have this new verification process, we already have our SOP," he said when featured on Bernama TV’s Apa Khabar Malaysia programme entitled "Transformation of the World of Journalism" today.

Arul Rajoo said media practitioners should also not be subservient and yield to the requests of clients or feel burdened by the competition from netizens to produce news quickly to the point of neglecting the fact-checking aspect.

“Although there is pressure from readers, or pressure from the higher-ups to get the news out quickly, we as journalists or photographers or publishers have to ensure that all these steps of news production are carried out. Any mistake, once published, is difficult to retract,” he said.

In addition, he said media practitioners cannot rely entirely on artificial intelligence (AI) because the technology is still not ‘mature’ and is prone to errors.

“AI is still in the learning stage. It will take information from whatever we feed it. If we give it incorrect information, we will get incomplete and inaccurate results. Therefore, we must always comply with our information verification SOP,” he said.

Arul Rajoo, however, accepted that AI is very beneficial in helping to streamline operations, especially in carrying out multiple tasks simultaneously, which is now essential for media practitioners.

“In the past, news coverage only required news writing. Now, a journalist has to also take photographs, videos, and sometimes do some video editing, to be sent to their headquarters.

“These are the challenges faced by all journalists of the current generation, young or old, and in this situation, AI can be helpful as a complementary tool,” he said.

-- BERNAMA