JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, July 25, 2025

Avoid mauvais langue says LA Times editor

by

20121027

Avoid mau­vais langue. Jour­nal­ist par ex­cel­lence, re­cip­i­ent of the Hon­orary De­gree of Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt), Hon­oris Causa Da­van Ma­haraj en­cour­aged so­ci­ety to strive for the truth. Ma­haraj, ed­i­tor of the Los An­ge­les Times, as well as doyen among lo­cal jour­nal­ists Therese Mills (DLitt) were both ho­n­oured dur­ing the pre­sen­ta­tion of grad­u­ates 2012, at UWI Spec, St Au­gus­tine, yes­ter­day.

El­e­gant­ly at­tired stu­dents from the Fac­ul­ty of Med­ical Sci­ences were anx­ious about mov­ing in­to pro­fes­sion­al life. They were com­mend­ed for seek­ing high­er learn­ing. Of­fer­ing ker­nels of wis­dom, Ma­haraj said, "We all heard of mau­vais langue, a pen­chant for gos­sip, for spread­ing lies, hearsay, or in my world as a jour­nal­ist, to re­port a sto­ry with­out the full set of facts, a half-sto­ry. It is some­thing my grand­moth­er (grow­ing up in Palmyra) warned me about."

Ma­haraj added:

"As jour­nal­ists we are of­ten left to won­der how our trade can sur­vive in democ­ra­cies that es­pouse free­dom of speech, where free­dom of speech is both cel­e­brat­ed and abused. The ques­tion is all the more pro­found if you are like me and you be­lieve in the pow­er of sto­ries, nar­ra­tives to con­nect peo­ple to events, to trends and to one an­oth­er. Now as ever be­fore, we need the press to hold a mir­ror up to so­ci­ety, to mod­er­ate dis­cus­sions about race and mon­ey, priv­i­lege and dis­ad­van­tage."

In an ef­fort to rid so­ci­ety of mau­vais langue, Ma­haraj be­came a cus­to­di­an of the Fourth Es­tate (jour­nal­ists). "It was an op­por­tu­ni­ty to dis­pel gos­sip, tell the truth, and to tell truth to pow­er." Ma­haraj did not dis­count the in­flu­ence of the In­ter­net which was forc­ing all pro­fes­sion­al trades to change.

"Jour­nal­ists hear from read­ers who have heard a dif­fer­ent ac­count of the news. Lawyers hear from clients who have heard the laws. Ar­chi­tects hear from cus­tomers who might have drawn their own build­ing plans. Very soon doc­tors would be hear­ing from pa­tients who have di­ag­nosed them­selves on the In­ter­net. They would ask them to e-mail the pre­scrip­tions."

On a lighter note, Ma­haraj said he would boast about be­ing from two places (T&T). "Now with UWI's back­ing, I?can say I?be­long to 18 dif­fer­ent places-from Bermu­da to Be­lize."?Quizzed on how she felt about her doc­tor­ate, Mills, News­day Ed­i­tor-in-Chief, said "Very hap­py. I would ad­vise bud­ding jour­nal­ists to work hard."?

Vale­dic­to­ri­an Maryam Mo­hammed paid ku­dos to dean Samuel Ram­se­wak for the im­prove­ments made at Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex. She re­mind­ed her fel­low grad­uands they had ac­cept­ed a call­ing to one of the no­ble pro­fes­sions. Cher­ian Woodruffe, pres­i­dent of the UWI?Alum­ni As­so­ci­a­tion led grad­u­ates in recit­ing the pledge to en­sure UWI's place as a Caribbean icon: the cat­a­lyst for Caribbean de­vel­op­ment and change.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored