It is important to establish a healthy relationship with news sources, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told told the Anadolu Agency News Academy students.
“Politicians are a journalist’s most important news source, and the most essential element in this relationship is trust,” Bozdag said, adding that a principled journalist must keep any “off the record” information confidential; and divulge it only if it is necessary, and be objective when doing so.
“People who talk to you should believe that you are doing an honest work, and that you would not report any words uttered in the heat of the moment if that would damage the speaker,” he said.
As for slips of the tongue, the minister said that it was only natural, but could create problems if they were reported as if they were intentional.
“Therefore, you must write your stories without distorting the truth, and quoting as is without including your comments,” he said.
Bozdag also urged the students to do their best to learn as much as they could from the professional journalists teaching at the Academy, and said that he believed that the Anadolu Agency would progress even further with the contributions of the new generation of journalists being schooled at the Academy.
“Anadolu Agency is the main source of all newspapers in the country. Therefore, the better the Agency’s output, the better the overall production,” Bozdag said.