From time to time the media publish news about issues that are no secret to most readers. Yet, the officials who reveal these things insist on anonymity.
I can’t understand why some officials insist on not revealing their identity when the issues they are talking about are of no great news value in the first place.
In politics, information is sometimes deliberately leaked by inside sources, and the purpose of such leaks is to prepare the public for events, and their importance lies less in the source of the leak than in the information.
The issue generates a big response from the public.
But why do officials insist on acting the same way when they are talking about something everyone knows already?
They should realize that the trust put in them and their duty to serve the public with a degree of fairness and transparency demand the courage on their part to face the public and address it in simple understandable words.
They should realize that responsibility means the ability to effect reform, admit and correct mistakes and not to close their eyes and keep silent in the face of wrong-doing.
If an official with authority to issue and enforce decisions can’t live up to the responsibility of solving peoples’ problems and winning their trust, then we would ask him, not only to remain anonymous but to leave his job altogether and make room for someone more capable.
Some officials leave it to subordinates to issue press statements. The blame in this case does not lie with these junior staff but their superiors, who are afraid of responsibility and prefer to hide behind their junior staff.
Arab News From the Local Press 1 March 2003
