David Schlesinger: No story is worth a life

“No story is worth a life,” said David Schlesinger, Chairman of Thomson Reuters China, when giving a talk at Hong Kong Shue Yan University today.

Two Western journalists were killed while they (are-past) working in Syria last month. The incident has raised concern (on-wrong preposition) journalists’ safety problem among the public. According to David, safety is always a prime consideration. He stressed that no story is worth a life.

“I would rather lose a story than lose a life. So if journalists are in a physically dangerous situation, they should try to put themselves in a safe place at first,” said David.

Last week, columnist and political commentator Johnny Lau has criticized the Sing Pao Daily News for unfairly editing and distorting his column on the chief executive election. After that, the media started to worry about the freedom of reporting news. (try to stick to one news angle=safety of journalist=title)

During the talk, David is asked to predict whether the freedom of press will be violated in the foreseeable future. He rejected to answer the question directly so as to “avoid dangerous”.

“It is very dangerous to predict the future. A reporter should report fact instead of predict the future,” said David.