Dr. Dhiman Chowdhury :
The Problem. Editors and editorial board members of refereed journals often publish their articles in their journals. This practice is very common in academic journals published from even universities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and other developing countries. Similarly newspaper editors and employees write their opinions in their papers (even in the front page). I would argue that this is not a right choice.
Overriding Reasons to the Contrary. Good knowledge in philosophy is a belief where there is no other stronger belief to the contrary. A belief to be knowledge must have adequate grounds and there are not overriding reasons to the contrary of that belief. Writing in own journals clash with reasons such as (i) there is higher possibility of positional bias, (ii) there is higher possibility of acceptance of papers which are in line with those of the editorial team, (iii) lack of competition because entry is restricted, (iv) there is exclusively an editorial section everyday for their writings, (v) there are many other unaffiliated places for their good work to be published. Good Knowledge. For better knowledge one has to interact more with unrelated persons than with related persons. Related persons may not disagree and differ which may restrict growth of knowledge. For growth of good knowledge coherence of beliefs or reasons is necessary but at the same time coherence must come from independent and unrelated persons. Adam Smith in his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) was more cautious about this human interaction and preferred interactions among ‘strangers’ and even used the words ‘rest of the mankind’.
Making Knowledge and Acquiring Knowledge. Making knowledge is an intellectual process. This process is the act of creating new knowledge by revising, improving, broadening and widening existing knowledge. Acquiring knowledge on the other hand, is just a process of knowing the existing information and knowledge accepting them as granted without questioning and critical analysis. Common people acquire knowledge and do a good job by operationalizing new knowledge created by scholars and intellectuals. Knowledge creation has its unique process through research, independence, and freedom. Common people acquire knowledge by sense, observation, and experience. Knowledge making is something more than that a priori knowledge, i.e., creating epistemic reason, pure reason, rich reason, independent reason, and unaffiliated coherent reason.
Why newspaper employees write in their papers. It is relatively easy for them writing journalistic articles based on past news. Journalistic articles are information based whereas new-knowledge articles are thought based. If they fill up the opinion page with these articles (knowledge acquiring) then new knowledge (knowledge making) articles find little room and thus are restricted. Opinion writers of The Times, The Guardian and other reputed international newspapers are knowledge-journalists and authors. They are not employees of any newspaper but previous editors of other newspapers. They are public intellectuals. Their role is researching complicated issues of scientific, economic, social and philosophical discoveries and then communicating an accurate and understandable version to the public which most laymen would not have the time or access to information to research themselves.
Short of Analogy. The above editorial practice is inconsistent with other human and institutional practices like the host talks less and he lets the guests talk more, good leaders are good listeners, in corporate governance, outsiders-majority board is an accepted standard, in standard portfolio theory in finance: standard deviation of returns of unrelated investments is lower than that in related investments, in competitive market around the world, merger of firms with more than 20% of total market share is not allowed, and in business, there is a principle called business entity concept where owner and his business house are two separate entities meaning owners’ personal assets and liabilities cannot be mixed with those of his business house.
Aesthetics. Organizational processes are not only technical or economic, these are also aesthetics. Editorial board is not just a number of members and its purpose is not just to bring out publications, there are a whole lot of aesthetic issues involved: competitiveness, transparency, independence, and decentralization. When a newspaper editor writes his views in the front page of his paper he produces something which is stained by lack of independence, at least by appearance, and display of power. It can be taken by many as singing of self-glory or self-aggrandizing.
Newspapers: Public easily and quickly get the benefits of the scholars’ work. Scholars’ works come through a long process of research, seminars, and being published in academic journals and books. Academic journals and books are not easily reachable to the common people. Academic and scholarly writings published in the newspapers in a diluted form can serve this purpose. But newspaper employees’ writings do not come through this process. Any writing without being previously examined, scrutinized, criticized, and reviewed are likely to be less acceptable.
Regulation. So far known, there is no restriction on the newspaper employees to express their views in the op-ed section. But one thing emphasized is that the writings must be truthful and fair. The Press Council Act xxv, 1974 of Bangladesh provides that a journalist writing for newspaper shall be cautious about the credibility and truthfulness of sources. The Press Council of India requires that independence of the editor and his team from the owner of newspapers is a must. The International Herald Tribune, the global edition of the New York Time states that an opinion article is a commentary written by someone who is independent of the newspaper.
The editors and reporters of the news department are not allowed to inject opinions into their work, nor to write for the views pages. The opinion articles are contributed by people from outside the paper. The regulatory compliance is more likely when op-ed articles are written by people independent of the newspaper administration.
Origin. Herbert Bayard Swope of the New York Evening World created the op-ed first in 1921. In the beginning, the op-ed articles were written by employees of his newspaper. In 1961, John B. Oakes, the editor of the editorial page began experimenting humorous, ironic, thought-provoking, and timeless themes with the existing ‘topics of the time’. Diplomats, professors, and fiction writers were asked to contribute to the column. However, the timely issues or contemporary issues in the op-ed page are more popular around the world, but one common consensus is that op-ed articles shall be contributed by people outside the newspaper who are independent of the editor, the editorial team, and the owner of the newspaper.
(Dr. Dhiman Chowdhury is Professor of Accounting, Dhaka University, Bangladesh, dhiman_chowdhury @yahoo.com)
