WHAT is the most important skill that a journalist should have?

I have had plenty of suggested answers for that question throughout my career - sharp analysis, vivid prose and pristine grammar are but a few of them.

Yesterday came a surprising, new answer - keep it straight, stupid.

As in, stick with straight news reporting, and hone that skill to perfection.

This advice came from Mr Nigam Tong Dow, chairman of iGlobe Advisors, who was a civil servant for Singapore for 40 years.

The much-decorated 71-year-old was talking to about 100 SPH journalists for an in-house lecture series yesterday.

He recounted that he had a stint as a Straits Times cub reporter before enrolling in the university.

While he admitted to be an "old-school" type of person, he still believes that the most vital skill in the journalism business is still straight news reporting.

His answer puzzled me for a while.

Surely, in this media-saturated age, a journalist needs more than that basic skill, in order to shine through the deluge of reports that come through all sorts of media - television, Internet, mobile phone, iPod.

But Mr Ngiam explained: The trick is in perfecting that basic skill.

"Can you write free of your own opinion?" he asked. "Can you write what you feel, instead of writing what you think?"

That's when it hit me - this basic skill is not that simple.

It requires an unbiased touch by the reporter - free from all his viewpoints and judgments.

It needs an eye for detail, in choosing the right words at the right context.

Most importantly, it needs passion from the reporter.

He has to be dedicated enough to search out the tiniest morsels of important facts.

He also has to write it in a captivating manner, yet simple enough for readers to appreciate.

Not easy at all, this basic skill.

Most of us young journalists like to think we have a grasp of straight news reporting after a year or two in the front-line.

The truth is, we have only skimmed the surface.

And that is enough to drive me onwards in my career, to hone and fine tune this skill.