User generated contents and credibility of journalism

The use of so-called « citizen journalists » looks nice and democratic. But apart from often being a crude marketing tool to attract audiences to a website it runs the risk of dangerously affecting the credibility of journalism.
The Belgian news agency Belga has shamefully demonstrated the reality of this assumption by publishing a fake story sent to its new “citizen wire”, Ihave news.be, a parallel commercial system of news fed by individuals.
On Monday Belga announced the death of Queen Fabiola, the widow of former King Baudouin. This item of “news” had been sent to Ihavenews.be by an unknown individual that provided enough elements to warn that this was a joke (a fake phone number..). But the info was published without any form of double-checking on the general wire.
Some in the media tend to confuse the space for freedom of expression which should be as wide as possible and the space for journalism. In some commercially-driven media user-generated content (UGC) has become an alibi for kowtowing to the whims of the public and reducing the “need for journalists” and for journalism.
Belgian journalist organizations have reacted vigorously to Belga’s messy pratices and they hope that this scandal will convince the proprietors to establish clear guidelines for UGC and provide journalists with the necessary resources and prerogatives to check this form of “citizen news”.
In fact, the term of citizen journalism should be banned if it means UGC. This noble expression should be reserved for a form of journalism, practised by journalists, that contributes to enhancing citizenship, i.e. a journalism that provides the public with the ideas and facts that are necessary for a meaningful participation in public life.
In the current profusion of news and noise the need for journalism is more urgent than ever. Journalists must become the arbiters, tutors and stewards of the information avalanche. They must develop the skills and be given the time and resources necessary to select the good from the bad, the significant from the frivolous, and validate all info that comes across their computer screens.