An overseas Singaporean student who tested positive for Covid-19 upon his return has accused a journalist of sensationalising his story which led to him to receive numerous negative online comments and insults.
I interned at The Straits Times as a reporter back in 2007-08. Speaking from experience, a story’s angle can change based on the information gathered/presented during the course of reporting.
It was best practice (for me at least) to notify the interview subject if the angle/tone of the article differs significantly from the original and let them have a read through to raise any objections and to alert you to any inaccuracies that need to be corrected before publication. But this isn’t always possible especially for breaking news stories with their shorter turnaround times.
The most damning claim here is that the reporter had sensationalised Ong’s account. I’m not sure what exactly his experience was or what the quotes he provided were — because people do truly say the darnedest things sometimes — but the journalist’s original tone alone is quite accusatory. Understandably, Ong would/should be upset especially if the original article allegedly misrepresented him and resulted in him receiving a barrage of undeserved criticism. (The vitriol of online commenters is another issue.)
If what Ong said is true, this damages the local journalism scene and civic discourse. The latter relies on ideas and opinions being presented, discussed and debated openly in society and it’s already difficult to get people’s takes on sensitive topics like politics because they’re scared to be misquoted, mis-profiled or misinterpreted. In my experience, this only serves to make people unconsciously suppress their true opinions and inadvertently allows one view to dominate whether “rightly so” or not.
My advice for potential interview subjects? Ask the reporter what their news angle is beforehand. And organise your interview over email or text; avoid phone interviews unless you can record the audio/video.
The Kym J. Version 