World Free Press Day: New York Times comes to QSI
Students hear about responsibilities and power that the pen holds
June 7, 2023
On May 3, which marked the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, Sri Stewart and Dan Saltzstein, journalists from The New York Times (The Times) passed on their knowledge to the aspiring young rookies of the QSI Press.
Stewart writes for Wirecutter, a section of The Times that includes product reviews, which takes on average six to eight weeks to write one review.
Sophomore Tenzin Yeshi thought Stewart’s job sounded “fun because you get to get products for free and try them out for yourself and everyday is something new.”
Saltzstein, who is a senior editor with almost 25 years working at The Times, described how journalism has changed and new challenges journalists have to contend with since the introduction of the internet and more recently, artificial intelligence. Students agreed that changes made news reporting different.
“In the old days, newspapers were the way that information got around, now we have more opinions and everything is more accessible including the writing materials for news articles,” said Rukhmah Nauman, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the QSInquirer.
Generally, the QSI Press staff saw the changes in news reporting as positive, perhaps outweighing the challenges and dangers that Saltzstein talked about.
“I feel that modern journalism is a much more efficient way of receiving information. I think that modern journalism has a generally positive effect on the public because anyone could look at the news at any time and there’s a lot of it,” said sophomore Cai Racpan.
According to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) the purpose of World Press Freedom Day is to “celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media on attacks on their independence and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives on duty.
“The press is endangered currently because we are being held against the government for writing current news,” said sophomore Lara Jusi. “There’s nothing wrong with writing down what is going on in our society or possibly the truth. I think it’s wrong to keep that certain truth in the dark and fabricated. It’s best to let everyone know because sooner or later, it will be found out in the end, so there’s no need to hide it. I think the government is the one who feels self conscious about what’s going on within the country,” she said.
One take away from the event was that with the flow of information being so quick and having to maintain a status quo, journalists don’t get much time to fact check their sources. One hasty interview with the wrong batch of people can cause a disruption in the system and risk a lot more than a press badge when journalists write words on a page.
Co-Editor-in-Chief Caitlyn Crisostomo pointed out that journalists for the QSInquirer do not face the same pressures and time constraints as professional journalists.
“Since the QSInquirer is not a daily or even weekly publication, we are able to put much more time and effort into our thorough research and investigation for our articles. This protects the integrity of the paper and ensures that all of the information we share is accurate,” said Crisostomo.
