Chairman of the Uganda Cricket Association, Mr. Richard Mwami, The CEO of the Uganda Cricket Association, Mr.

Justine Ligyalingi, Members of the media, Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you for inviting me to make a presentation on the subject of professionalism in journalism. When I was told I would be delivering a paper on this rather pertinent subject matter, my reaction was a subtle cocktail of shock and awe. Awe because I would imagine there is a distinguished list of people from which our hosts had the chance to make a pick. Settling with me is, I must admit, very humbling indeed. It is, I must add, humbling as it is shocking. The shock is down to the fact that the scope of this concept of professionalism is quite big. Talking about it is certain to straddle the number of minutes it would take Rahul Dravid to make three figures in a Test match. I will, however, try to do an impersonation of Virender Sehwag by notching a big score in thirty minutes. So, just what does professionalism embody? I asked this question on social media and got varying responses. They all pointed to professionalism being amorphous. It's sort of like Sachin Tendulkar's bowling style in the sense that there are multiple layers to it. Just as Tendulkar's right-arm offbreak and legbreak googly set out to scalp wickets, professionalism in journalism sets out to ensure that a more than decent job is done. Bails are knocked off in the sense that people are informed and empowered by good pieces of journalism. Like a batsman run out whilst trying to steal a run, leaders who abuse power are held to account. If they fail to answer the tough questions professionally hurled at them, they are runout. The dictionary defines professionalism as 'the competence or skill expected of a professional". It's worth also demystifying the noun 'professional'. A professional is just that, a professional. They belong to a profession. A profession being that paid occupation that is the process of a protracted training that yields a formal qualification. The key thing to note here is that there are standards of training that equip one with knowledge and skills in their field of expertise. It's the same painstaking effort that cricketers go through to learn the ropes of seam bowling or playing proper batting strokes for that matter. Various studies on journalistic professionalism have showed that professionalism is usually the result of "secondary socialisation of journalists in the workplace" and an obsession with journalistic norms and standards. We, here in Uganda, tend to socialise quite a bit in the four walls of our newsrooms. Whether we are obsessed with journalistic norms and standards is another thing altogether. The lion's share of Ugandan journalists have learnt on the job. Since there are no barriers to entry as is with the case with other professions like medicine and law, to

mention but two, the media industry -- at least the one in Uganda -- has tended to attract people who aren't grounded in the basics. As cricketers will tell you, basics such as footwork and playing in the 'V' hold a lot of sway. Journalistic professionalism begs of us drinking from a fountain of the transcendent values of honesty, accuracy, integrity, confidentiality, objectivity and truth. The singular common thread from these values is a strand that asks of us not to lie. Yellow journalism shouldn't be the substitute of truth. As professional journalists we should not only delight in the finer nuances of great prose and poetry, but also the very ethical fundamentals. Inaccuracies have always assumed a counter-productive outlook in our profession principally because they simply erode credibility. We all know that credibility is our very lifeblood: without it, we are nothing. It is this aspect of credibility that secures us the small matter of an interested audience. Quite often, when we talk of accuracy in journalism, the mind races to matters pertaining to correctness of spelling, names and numbers as well as quotes. Make no mistake about it, these dimensions are paramount. But equally, if not more, important is the bit of getting the context right as well as being sure of the background, the atmosphere, the tone you are conveying. the biographer Robert Caro once memorably remarked, time equals truth. What this essentially means is that we should put in the hours and burn the midnight oil to produce something accurate the truth. We should use time to review our notes, reinterview a key source to resolve lingering uncertainities, double-check and remove confusing sentences. I could also bang on about the news standard of objectivity which is representative of neutrality, factuality and non-partisanship. All these transcendent values help make us credible. Bil Gilbert once famously said that, " the job of journalists is to tell stories to strangers". Dealing with strangers means that believability is of the essence. You can only win over a stranger by being credible; anything short of that is disastrous. Our key goals as professional journalists is to be both useful and credible. We can be useful by acting as watchdogs and not lapdogs. Watchdogs get the ear of strangers, while lapdogs raise eyebrows. A good journalist should be able to do their work without conflicting standards. This is why since time immemorial, professional journalists have adopted standards and a subtle 'transparency' that has elevated their credibility. What all of this shows is that credibility can only be merited. Put another way, credibility accrues from your deeds. A purveyor of bad deeds commands no respect. If you are bowler and the batsman

on strike is on 99 with his team needing one run to win, would you bowl a wide to deny the batsman of personal gratification? If you did this, you would be treated with contempt. That's what bad deeds do. Public inability and unwillingness to believe news media emanates from the similar bad deeds while on job. This ultimately hampers the media's ability to act as the Fourth Estate (inform the public, monitor leaders and to govern). We become quite counterproductive if we cannot inform the public, monitor leaders and govern. So, we should do everything remotely possible to ensure that we dont sacrifice our Fourth Estate role at the altar of supposed monetary success. No price tag can be attached to our credibility. Not a million. Not a billion. A not-for-sale tag should instead be fixed on our credibility. So, what is this priceless thing called credibility, you may ask. Well, credibility has so often been described as the quality of being believable or trustworthy (ibid). When the mirror is held up to us, can we affirm our trustworthiness? So often we have showed our partiality as sports journalists. Tales of journalists hailing goals at league matches; donning jerseys of local clubs; cheering a point made by a sports official at a media briefing, etc. are commonplace. This, even if its not reflected in ones news report, is an utter turn-off to the reader/listener/viewer. It gets worse when its discernible in a report or presentation of a journalist. As journalists, we are called upon to take a middle-of-the-road position; not to be emotive; and to report it as we see it. If we adhere to this, the level of public satisfaction with the mass media will undoubtedly increase. We will have earned our stripes and badge of honour as professional journalists. Thank you for having me, and God bless us all!