Thirty-eight years of being on the front line of journalism teaches a few lessons.
Critics respond. Those in agreement usually do not. And covering the debate around intense and heart-felt controversies is a no-win. Both sides parse every word for evidence of bias and in their own minds, inevitably find it.
Getting caught in the crossfire comes with the territory for a political or business reporter. You are telling other people’s stories, often not the way they wish them to be told. You poke around in places, transactions and deals where you are not always welcome.
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And often you are trying to present two or more sides in a story that partisans believe does not have a side beyond theirs.
As a result, accusations of bias, angry reactions and heated denunciations are simply part of a journalist’s life.
But at least in this country, the most the opponents usually do is denounce, deny access or take other measures that make the job more difficult. In other parts of the world, the stakes for journalists are much higher and the tactics of unhappy readers often much more brutal.
At a World Press Freedom Day event in Ottawa May 2, the depressing evidence was rolled out.
In 2007, 102 journalists were killed and 72 were kidnapped around the world.
In the troubled country of Zimbabwe, domestic journalists who cover the opposition are beaten, arrested or murdered. In China, so-called “citizen journalists” often end up in jail for defying government censorship by publishing details the state would rather not see published.
And it must be said – Canada is not immune to the spectre of journalists being threatened over their journalism.
In recent years, police have barged into journalists’ homes and offices looking for sources of leaked documents and in British Columbia, an editor was murdered for his reporting on Sikh militants.
Then there is the saga of Ontario magazine Better Farming, which published an extensive story last year on Pigeon King International, an operation that sells breeding pigeons to farmers with high hopes of making a fortune.
The investigative piece by Better Farming reporters and editors found no credible market for these pigeons other selling them to other farmers hoping to make a fortune.
Pigeon King and some of its customers were outraged and there followed a campaign to undermine the magazine and intimidate Robert Irwin, one of the editors and story authors.
It is a reminder that journalism can be a dangerous profession anywhere.
