KITV faulted
for tripThe TV news station accepted a
trip to Japan paid for by the Hawaii
Visitors & Convention Bureau
Criticism is mounting over how a local television news station accepted a trip to Japan paid for by the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, with the blessing of Gov. Linda Lingle's office.
Faced with the criticism, the station, ABC affiliate KITV-4, said it will reimburse the visitors bureau the estimated $4,100 cost of sending a reporter and a cameraman on Lingle's week-long excursion to promote Hawaii.
KITV's general manager and its news director had agreed to the arrangement, as had the visitors bureau, the governor's office and the state Hawaii Tourism Authority.
The Hawaii visitors bureau, a nonprofit private agency, receives most of its tourism marketing funds from the state, with a contract worth $33.2 million this year. The bureau is in damage-control mode from a state audit that last week blasted the agency for abusing taxpayer dollars.
The arrangement with KITV is drawing criticism because of considerations of journalistic ethics, as well as concern that the trip amounts to free publicity for Lingle.
"It seems like this is a special on the governor," said Sen. Donna Mercado Kim (D, Kalihi Valley-Halawa), who has scheduled a public hearing Friday to pursue a preliminary investigation into the matter.
Lingle had been planning to take the Japan trip for months to help the state recover from the ill effects of world events on travel.
Mike Rosenberg, general manager of KITV, said he discussed the trip a couple weeks ago with Lenny Klompus, Lingle's senior communications adviser. KITV wanted to accompany the trip, said Tod Pritchard, news director of KITV. Klompus said it was fine, and pointed KITV to the Hawaii visitors bureau to make the arrangements.
The Hawaii visitors bureau said it arranged to cover the cost to bring KITV reporter Mahealani Richardson and a cameraman on the trip, with the agreement of the state tourism authority and the governor's office. Lingle left for Japan Saturday and is slated to return Friday.
"This is a communications effort," said Gail Ann Chew, HVCB vice president. "People often ask 'What are you doing in the marketplace?' This is definitely one of those positive steps of sharing what is going on."
"We felt it was a good opportunity for coverage on this," Pritchard said. "We felt like our coverage would not be compromised in any way by these arrangements."
For most media, free trips -- known as press junkets -- are generally unacceptable.
The Society of Professional Journalists has an ethics code that says journalists should "Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment" and "Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money."
The Radio-Television News Directors Association has a code of professional conduct that says journalists should vigorously resist undue influence from "outside forces, including advertisers, sources, story subjects, powerful individuals and special interest groups."
"I don't see that the code of ethics could be any more specific," said Bev Keever, professor of journalism at the University of Hawaii. "This is almost a no-brainer, I think, and really dangerous."
Rosenberg said he didn't see a conflict, because reporters have accompanied military trips and he didn't see this as being different. "We looked at it as an opportunity during a seasonable slow news time in the summer to bring back pictures from Japan," he said.
If KITV had to pay its own way, the station probably wouldn't have gone on the trip, he said. The station is owned by New York-based Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.
Pritchard said KITV did not overlook the ethical considerations. "I think there have been other cases where other media have gone along on these trips, and we felt that our reporting would be fair and that there would be no influence for ... arrangements to get over there."
Klompus, of the governor's office, also had inquired whether the Honolulu Star-Bulletin was interested in an expenses-paid trip. Frank Teskey, Star-Bulletin publisher and president, said he told Klompus: Thanks, but no thanks. The Star-Bulletin has an ethics code that says the paper must pay for all travel expenses related to news coverage, with exceptions.
In early 2002, a Star-Bulletin reporter and photographer accompanied a military trip from Hawaii to Louisiana, which was approved by the paper in that instance because it was the only transport available.
The Honolulu Advertiser has a similar policy against free trips, though it has accompanied short military trips where there was no commercial mode of alternative transportation, said Saundra Keyes, the paper's editor.
"The principle of journalistic independence is at stake. Journalists are appropriate watchdogs on government and government leaders," said Bob Steele, media ethics expert at The Poynter Institute, a journalism training center in St. Petersburg, Fla. "Journalists should not be taking anything of value from government agencies or government leaders that could undermine the independence and the integrity of the news reporting. Even a perceived erosion of independence is very problematic."
Steele noted that KITV had alternatives to accepting a free trip.
"They could have hired ... a journalist in Japan, as a freelancer, to cover the story from that angle. They could have reported the story from Honolulu before and after, plus some telephone interviews. And of course the station, if it believed it was an important story, could have paid its own way to go."
"Hindsight is 20/20," KITV's Rosenberg said.
"We just felt there would be no conflict; that we would be able to report the news fairly and accurately," said Pritchard. "There were no constraints put on us. There was no quid pro quo."
Because of the criticism, KITV decided to reimburse the HVCB. "Our integrity is everything," Pritchard said. "It's the most important thing we have as a news organization."
It's common in the tourism industry to arrange trips for travel writers, the HVCB's Chew said.
It's the HVCB's job to promote Hawaii, and that includes working with media. But Lingle and HVCB officials also stand to gain from positive local coverage of such a trip.
Steele said junkets can become especially onerous if journalists are riding on taxpayer dollars, because government officials have a vested interest in coverage of such trips.
"Separately, I think it's reasonable for citizens to ask if it's wise and appropriate for government officials to be doling out junket benefits to journalists when taxpayer money or government-related funds are involved," Steele said.
"It's basically a propaganda trip, anyhow," Keever said.
House Speaker Calvin Say and Senate President Robert Bunda said the arrangement raises questions about the abuse of taxpayer dollars. They released a statement that says, in part, that the public has a right to fair and unbiased news coverage.
Bob Awana, Lingle's chief of staff, said Bunda and Say are trying to distract the public from the governor's efforts to promote Hawaii tourism, boost the economy and fix the state budget.