Vargas Llosa explains the journalistic mission

Journalism, says Mario Vargas Llosa, "is the best tool for improving democracy". The Peruvian writer, who has just been awarded Columbia University's Cabot prize for outstanding reporting on Latin America, said at the prize ceremony in New York: "Journalists should be objective, stick to the facts, and systematically search out the truth." He added that they should establish a clear boundary between information, opinion and interpretation so that readers can form their own opinion. Vargas Llosa is to be the keynote speaker at the World Editors Forum in South Africa next year. (Via Editors weblog)