Sleeping with the enemy

Brian Mooney raises an interesting issue with the consternation at Gerry Long's receiving an Ethiopian order and a question mark hanging over the appropriateness of a more recent knighthood, in the interests of neither being nor being perceived to be too close to a government. But of much greater import than an honour award, I think, is having that crusty old autocrat Lee Kuan Yew appearing side by side with then managing director Peter Job as the virtual guest of honour at Reuters’ 150th anniversary celebrations in Singapore. 

Lee detained critics without trial, restricted the media and foreign publications, arrested journalists, and bankrupted others with huge fines for defamation, all imposed by a subservient, partial judiciary. Is this the guy that the head of a news agency which prides itself on the unbiased, objective free flow of information should be hobnobbing with at its birthday bash? 

If journalism were a state, sleeping with the enemy would be an act of treason. It’s rather like having Dr Goebbels give the keynote speech at a world seminar on objective, unbiased news and the free flow of information untrammelled by propaganda. ■