Features
Lukewarm reactions to targeting and killing of journalists
This commentator hopes that he would be proved wrong on this score. World Press Freedom Day which fell on May 3 drew some very informative and insightful comments from a few concerned organizations, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York, and the Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF), but the occasion seemed to have been a non-event for the majority of publics. Whereas one would have expected largely attended, world- wide popular protests on particularly the targeted killing of journalists, this did not happen to the desired degree on the day in question.
May be publics around the world cannot be faulted for this failure because it is the responsibility of mainly civil society organizations to do what is required by mobilizing public opinion vigorously and consistently on the need for increasing press and media freedom.
This issue needs to be researched and studied in depth by the advocates of democracy and other sections that project themselves as the guardians of the Freedom of Expression. Whereas the umbilical link, as it were, between press freedom and democratic development needs to be consistently underscored by media organizations, purported promoters of the free media and the like, this is not happening to the desired extent in both the North and South. Hence, the seeming lack of appeal that press and media freedom has for what is considered the general public.
The reasons for these questions being of little importance to most governments around the world ought to be plain to see. Even the most vibrant of Northern democracies could not be expected to be over-zealous about the promotion of press and media freedom, because a socially-conscious and truth-driven press would be at polar opposites with their power ambitions and jealously-guarded vested interests.
For instance, the exposing of corruption and power abuse in high places by the press would be tantamount to undermining the self- interest, and in fact the reason for existence, of these ruling strata. It should not come as a surprise, therefore, if media freedom is not overly popular with even what are seen as democratic governments. Accordingly, governments would not be in the forefront of celebrating World Press Freedom Day although they would be making ritualistic, half-hearted utterances in support of the Freedom of Expression.
A crucial test in this connection came when the Israeli state clamped down on the operations of the Al-Jazeera news agency in Tel Aviv recently and put it out of action. Western democracies are yet to make any notable, impactful protests over this repressive measure. The same goes for the more successful democracies of the global South.
Given this bleak backdrop, one could not expect much from Small Sri Lanka with regard to the promotion of the Freedom of Expression and allied matters. Nor could one expect the Lankan state to bring to justice those who have silenced journalists and media workers over the years.
It is plain to see that journalists’ organizations, civil society groups and the like have their work cut out, considering that the crucial importance of the Freedom of Expression and its implications are yet to be fully comprehended by the ordinary citizenry in many parts of the world. It is the obligation of the above mentioned organizations to ensure that public awareness of the matters in question is steadily raised and that such interest never dwindles.
A principal task before the promoters of the Freedom of Expression and other closely allied rights is to indicate the bearing they have on democratic development and the wellbeing of peoples. Essentially, democratic development denotes the linking of growth with re-distributive justice. Social Democracy sets for itself the same aims.
The Freedom of Expression could be said to accelerate democratic development because it enables publics to cogently articulate their needs to governments and hold the latter accountable for meeting these requirements. It goes without saying that such a process is not possible in states where the democratic rights of the people are not respected and recognized by governments. Thus, democracy and the Freedom of Expression are integrally linked and one without the other is unthinkable.
Since the free press is a principal factor in the furtherance of democracy, which in turn ensures the thriving of people’s rights, the life of a journalist in a democracy could be considered priceless. When journalists are targeted and killed anywhere, democracy and the rights of the people could be said to be irreparably harmed.
If the above facts are consistently impressed on publics by civil society organizations, free media advocates and the like, publics would perceive the responsibility cast on them to ensure the unharmed, trouble-free existence of journalists and their co-workers.
Thus, the people of the Gaza and other regions of relentless blood-letting currently are losing overwhelmingly on a number of fronts as a result of their journalists being silenced and eliminated by forces hostile to democratic development. If publics everywhere are convinced of the great magnitude of their losses resulting from the killing of journalists, it would be easier for pro-democracy forces to bring ordinary citizens to streets in the name of democracy and the free press.
Today journalists in their hundreds are being silenced, killed and stymied all over the world. Records indicate that more than a thousand journalists have been killed or caused to disappear since the early nineties. While fingers point at mainly authoritarian and undemocratic states as being responsible in the main for the harm being inflicted on journalists today, those states that are being seen as thriving democracies could be doing equal harm to journalists and the Freedom of Expression by not calling out or criticizing those states, that are in alliance with them, that are throttling the free media in equal measure.
However, no state could afford to ignore the popular will. If publics are galvanized into taking up the cause of the Freedom of Expression by being made to realize the bearing it has on their wellbeing, governments would be compelled to defer to their just needs.