Mishler Libby October 21, 2007 Ethical Inquiry #1 Rewrite "On Quiet Streets of Myanmar Fear Is a Constant Companion" 1
The article, "On Quiet Streets of Myanmar Fear Is a Constant Companion," focuses on the fear of the citizens of Yangon, who have just been silenced after an uprising against the Junta government. The author, Choe Sang-Hun, wrote the story to show the public the repression of the citizens of this small country. The moral justification of running this story is to let the world know how these people are being treated. They were beaten and abused for speaking out against the government. A possible objection against running this story is that the story is biased because the journalist did not describe both sides of the conflict. Choe Sang-Hun, the South Korean journalist2 who wrote the article, actually traveled to this area to gather information. He talked to many citizens of Myanmar and quoted them. However, all but one of them asked to remain anonymous. Sang-Han had to honor these requests: ",,We want to explode our feelings, but if we do, who will help us? said a 58-year-old business man who, like many, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation."3 The writer only gave the ages of the persons quoted and their occupations. This protects his sources while also gives his story credibility. Sang-Hun wrote this story from the peoples point of view. He described the situation through the citizens eyes and not through the governments: "After the
1
New York Times, Sunday, October 21, 2007, page 1. http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2000/investigative-reporting/bio/ accessed October 21, 2007. 3 New York Times, op cit.
2
government shut down access Internet and denied visas for outside journalists, keeping much of the world at bay..." This only tells what the government did, but there is no description of their reasoning behind it. Throughout the article, no government officials were quoted, nor was there any statement of support for the governments position. The article is very biased in this way. There was no defense of why the Junta felt threatened and believed that they needed to control their people. Myanmar is not a democratic society, and the journalist immediately took the citizens side without attempting to allow the government to make comment. From an ethical standpoint Sang-Hun should have tried for balance by giving the views of the government. From a teleologists standpoint, the journalist wrote this story to raise public awareness in hopesof applying the pressure of public opinion to the Myanmar government, to change their behavior and stopping the oppression. According to Mill, the knowledge has been spread to millions through a democratic press. The knowledge/good is now in the hands of people who can make a difference. Taking Mills position one could argue that this good outweighs the journalists charge to strive for balance. I am taking the teleologists point of view because if Choe Sang-Hun had tried to achieve balance by putting in the governments opinion the story would have not raised as much awareness as it did. The fact that this government harassed and detained journalists for coming into their country explains why Sang-Hun takes the citizens standpoint. The story contained unethical aspects however it should have been printing because the good that came out of raising awareness outweighs the bias.