Journalists have a role to play in ensuring that the public is fully aware of all the events going on around the world, newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald said yesterday.
Addressing business leaders at the Dublin Chamber of Commerce's Christmas lunch, Sir Trevor said that while he cannot claim journalists always get it right, it is their duty to ensure that the public can never again say "we didn't know".
Referring to recent revelations of the severe famine crisis in Niger, Sir Trevor, who is known for his interviews with well-known names such as Nelson Mandela and Saddam Hussein, said that modern methods of communicationmeant that there should be no occasions where hurt and suffering goes undetected by the rest of the world.
Acknowledging that journalism is not always the most popular profession, he said that there are many issues, such as the question of whether Iraq ever had any weapons of mass destruction and the abuse at the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib, that demand scrutiny by journalists and the media.
"If what we do is to have any relevance, integrity or belief in its own worth, then it presupposes that we must endeavour to address these issues because this is the way that a democracy works - interaction between those in the executive and those who are governed," he said.
"We have the chance to inform people, and when they are informed they can never again say 'we didn't know'," he said.
