The old whipping boy

Mar 04, 2009 Editorial

At this year’s commemoration of the death of Dr. Cheddi Jagan, President Bharrat Jagdeo used the occasion to offer his views on the state of journalism in Guyana. The press, which has been an old whipping boy for the President, once again received a tongue-lashing.
He singled out a section that, in his estimation, has evinced a predisposition for distorting facts in a coordinated fashion designed “to make the government look bad”.
Conceding that some of the reporting may be the result of “ignorance”, he confessed that it left him “so frustrated” because of the possible mis-education of the populace.
Now we do not have any problem with the President criticising the press – or any other institution for that matter. In fact, this is what democracy is all about. But the criticism does not have to only come from on high: as the ancient saying goes, “a cat may look at a king”.
It would appear, though, that the President does not only deny the press its right of free criticism, but in so doing declared that “they are the new opposition.”
The President, then, persists in viewing all criticism as designed to bring his government down and not as possibly an effort to identify and highlight shortcomings in governance that might, perchance, be rectified.
As we have stated before, we believe that this view is grounded in a profound misapprehension of the role of the press in the struggle for and the consolidation of a vibrant democratic culture in our country.
It is not for naught that very early on, in the development of democracy, that Edmond Burke, looking at the press gallery in the House of Commons, exclaimed, “Yonder sits the Fourth Estate and they are more important than them all!”
He was acknowledging the role played by the press in extending democratic practices after the seminal French revolution and its legacy of creating the “three estates of King, Nobility and Commoners”.
Democracy became the “rule of the people”. And if the people are to rule, at a minimum one would agree they must have the relevant information about issues that their country is confronted by, before they can make meaningful decisions.
This is the role of the press. Since that time, every other approach has shown that democracy will not thrive without the bracing scrutiny of robust, independent journalism.
Most of us accept that journalists ought to be “objective” in their reporting. While acknowledging that complete “value-free” reporting may be an oxymoron, this does not make those reporters who report governmental activity in a less than flattering light into a political “opposition”. By definition, an institution that defines its mandate as seeking to prevent the Leviathan of government from riding rough over the same citizens who created it must be, at a minimum, questioning. There is no other stance. A democrat must accept this position.
It is not that we do not accept that journalists or publishers might use the press to spout their opinions.
Last year, in our editorial, “Responsibility of journalism” we pointed out: If journalists do not deliver the facts about the issues but rather stress their opinions, then one can quickly see how democracy can be subverted.
There can be a reasonable difference of opinion among experts but the point (the iconic US journalist) Walter Lipman stressed is that while pointing out the various opinions, these should be clearly identified and those of the journalist should not take centre-stage.
The facts and just the facts should dominate: veracity must come first, not “edification”. And those facts can be contested.
Individuals are, by and large, aware of the inevitable bias of reporting and try to read and/or listen to reports from several different types of sources.
The government has insisted on the need to present the facts as it sees them and to this end has maintained the previous administration’s monopoly over radio, massive subsidisation of the National Communications Network as well as controlling the Chronicle.
The President and the government cannot have their cake and eat it too. In a democracy we have to agree to disagree: there is no alternative.
Do not persist in making the press the whipping boy.

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