Linny Folau
WASHINGTON (Matangi Tonga / Pacific Media Watch): Bob Woodward, one of America's best known journalists, believes journalists should be persistent and relentless in pursuing the truth.
He advised the 150 international journalists visiting Washington, DC, under the Edward R. Murrow Programme for Journalists, to always pursue the truth. The man who is famous for reporting on the Watergate scandal gave an inspiring speech about how freedom of the press is vital to a democracy because without a free press, "democracy would die in darkness".
As a young reporter at the Washington Post, Bob Woodward teamed up with Carl Bernstein to do most of the original reporting on the Watergate scandal, that eventually led to former President Nixon's resignation.
He said journalists served the public, therefore they should always write the truth.
Woodward, an associate editor at the Washington Post, has a distinguished 37-year reporting career at the newspaper, that has earned him nearly every American journalism award.
Persist for the truth
He said it was not always easy to get the truth, but a journalist had to be persistent and relentless, because there were people who would tell the truth. He said this was not always the situation, but that was how a journalist would get the story.
He said when they started to report on the Watergate scandal, not everyone believed what they wrote. He advised journalists to be true to themselves and to hear people out.
Woodward has to date authored 11 national bestselling non-fiction books, and has interviewed several US Presidents, including Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama.
When asked how he would have reported on the Watergate scandal in this digital age, given all the social media available now, Woodward answered that President Nixon would not be his friend on Facebook.
He advised that although social media was here, journalists would not find the truth on the internet.
"You must find that out from human sources," he stressed.
At the conclusion of the discussion, the visiting journalists were excited to meet Woodward in person.
Woodward was a speaker under the Edward R. Murrow programme visiting journalists attended at the US Department of State Harry S. Truman Building in Washington DC, on October 25.
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