DOHA: A good journalist’s job is not to make friends over a cup of tea and refreshments, Doha Debates Chairman Tim Sebastian (pictured) told a gathering of Arab journalists in Amman recently. “It is not your job to make friends over a cup of tea and a slice of cake. The general public does not get the chance to hold politicians accountable and in many cases your questions are their
only weapons”.
Sebastian gave a keynote speech on in-depth interview techniques to a packed hall of over 200 Arab journalists at the first Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) conference. The event was hailed as ‘unprecedented’ in some quarters of the Jordanian press in light of the region’s struggle with issues of freedom of speech, repressive media
laws and democracy.
Sebastian told the audience that a journalist’s first duty is to provide the general public with something new and that the opportunity to question those in power is a responsibility that should not be taken lightly. Participants asked the famous journalist whether timid journalism has made political interviewing boring and if journalists should accept restrictions on subject matters up
for discussion. “Over the past 30 years — with the BBC and now the Doha Debates — I have never been told what I could or couldn’t ask.”
Sebastian also met with Jordanian Minister of State for Media and Communications Nasser Judeh and former Foreign Minister Hazem Nusseibeh while in Amman to discuss in the region.