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Press freedom is merely a fig leaf
Jul 24, 2008 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
One strange thing about this place is: everybody’s a politician! Yes, the entire Guyanese population is the Government and nobody is the constituency.
Everybody knows how to run things, just ask them and they will tell you. Some of them will even tell you without being asked.
And news “reporters”? Well, a few tell themselves they are politicians extraordinaire, never mind nobody has ever cast a ballot in their name.
The press, at least certain known sections, don’t want to report what’s happening in the news, they also want to dictate what should be happening.
This group wants to run things with their mouths and pens. And then, without fail, one of them will cross the boundaries of their profession – wait, scratch that – I meant disregard the rules of their jobs.
Next, their friends with the pens will pop up; their work is to use the pen to dislodge their friend’s foot from his mouth.
This exercise is done behind a screen they like to call “freedom of the press”. In actuality, this is a basic orgy of irresponsibility. It is really about abusing the freedom of the press, but they don’t want you to reason like that.
Some will get very antsy if you realise that they are not really the press, they are political activists posing as reporters.
Watch out for those especially who like to label themselves “independent” and squeal about the lack of “freedom”. They mostly have agendas they want to hide. “Press freedom” in their case, is merely a fig leaf.
It is clear that, to some reporters, freedom of the press means consent to be openly irresponsible with their communications.
They believe that there are no boundaries for press freedom; no such thing as practicing sound judgment, exercising rationality and impartiality, adhering to moral and social obligations, and committing to unbiased professionalism. To them, such basic journalistic ideals violate their “freedom”.
A press-pass, some reporters mistakenly think, certifies them to be above the rules, even those put in place by the society they supposedly serve.
This is the mindset that leads to abusive behaviour, and the attitude of indignation that accompanies any attempt to correct slovenly and pathetically reduced professionalism.
But they will zealously guard their “freedom”, though the real question is freedom to do what?
One good way that real journalists can continue to enjoy something like freedom of expression is to practice self-restraint when there is a temptation to abuse liberty as a licence.
But this is Guyana, of course, and encouraging the development of journalism’s professional ethics is more likely to be seen as an infringement on the tawdriness that passes as normalcy in today’s media. And nobody wants to infringe on that freedom, right?
Justin de Freitas
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