AN ATTACK ON THE MEDIA IS AN ATTACK ON EVERY CITIZEN

Jan 09, 2015 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Press freedom is not just important to the media, it is important to every citizen, because it is at the very foundation of the rights of citizens, constitutionally-protected rights.
When the media is attacked, it is therefore not just the media that should be concerned. Every citizen should be concerned, because an attack on the media is an attack on every citizen, not just in a theoretical sense, but also in a practical way. Every citizen should therefore take umbrage at threats and assaults on press freedom, because a slap against the media is a slap against the citizenry.
Before I explain why an attack on the media represents an attack on press freedom, I wish to once again revisit the terror attacks of last Wednesday that were carried out in Paris.
I condemn in the strongest possible manner these attacks. There can be no justification for such horrific acts, no matter how upset the terrorists were at the parodying of their prophet.
There can be no justification for what happened. Satire was attacked. But satire alone was not attacked; the right of free expression was attacked. But not just free expression was attacked; the foundation of civilized societies was assaulted.
The foundation of civilized societies is human freedom and liberty. Those freedoms and liberties are protected by human rights and one of the foremost human rights, indeed the foremost collective human right, is the right to free expression.
The media is a promoter and defender of such rights. The media promotes free expression by ensuring that people have access to information and that matters which are of public interest are given wider dissemination. The media defends free expression by refusing to be silenced or to be compromised in the discharge of their duties.
When the media is attacked, such as what happened in Paris on Wednesday or what has been happening to Kaieteur News and its publisher, Glenn Lall, this is an attempt to silence the media. There is an attempt to silence the Kaieteur News so that the Kaieteur News would not report on things that are inimical to the interests of a class created by political cronyism. It is an attack on the public, indeed an assault on every citizen, because it is attempting to prevent the citizens from receiving information that is of extreme importance to them.
Kaieteur News has stoutly defended this right by refusing to be compromised and refusing to bow to pressure. The attempt to silence the Kaieteur News places the PPPC in the unenviable position of being just like the PNC which has tried to snuff out the independent media by filing libel suits, denying newsprint to publishers, and by tuning the State media into partisan and propaganda outfits. But that is another story for another day.
Today the issue is about denying the people the right to receive information and by extension, the right to communicate information to others. This fundamental right of free expression is the distinguishing feature of civilized societies.
Some will question this proposition and counter that civilized societies are not distinguished by fundamental rights, but by the rule of law.
I will argue against this latter construction in two ways. The first is that the law has always existed prior to the wide acceptance of human rights. So we have had laws that allowed for persons to be burnt at the stake and we have had laws that allowed, even as late as 1823 in Guyana, for the heads of rebels to be hung in public. Now that can hardly be deemed civilized.
What civilized the rule of law was the incorporation and the protection afforded under the law to fundamental human rights. In other words, the existence of the rule of law in itself does not preclude allowing barbarism as acceptable human conduct.
The second thing that can be argued in support of the idea that it is fundamental human rights that make societies civilized is that the modern rule of law is associated with the protection and promotion of fundamental human rights, including the right to free expression.
If the basis of civilized societies is the existence and defence of fundamental human rights, then any assault on these rights represent an assault on civilized society, of which the citizens are the most important elements.
In Paris, the French people are coming out in their thousands and defending the right to satire. We need to do the same and rally behind those who are defending press freedom by refusing to give in to the pressures of the PPPC.
Long live Adam Harris! Love live Glenn Lall!

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AN ATTACK ON THE MEDIA IS AN ATTACK ON EVERY CITIZEN

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