Declining standards of journalism

Spreading misinformation affects media credibility and harms all democratic institutions.

Recently, Indian Chief Justice NV Ramana commented on the “gradual disappearance of authentic investigative journalism in India”. Such an observation from the head of the judiciary of any country speaks volumes of the state that we are in. There are no global boundaries to misinformation, and Nepal is no different, except for the scale, perhaps. As journalism students at the Nepal Press Institute in the 1980s, we were taught not to run a story if we did not have the other side. While editing, we were taught to cut it out if in doubt. Today's reporters seem to have different priorities from accuracy and fact-checks.