A prominent journalist in Tanzania was recently taken into custody by the police. Two years ago, another Tanzanian journalist simply vanished. In Egypt, journalists have been languishing in prison under the iron-fisted rule of President Abdel Fattah al Sisi. The world has clearly fallen silent on the issue of Jamal Khashoggi's murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.
As for conditions in Turkey, President Erdogan has gone after journalists with a vengeance, locking up journalists on spurious charges. In Rwanda, journalists have either been silenced or permitted to speak if they stay away from revealing the truth about media repression. In Pakistan, the media are under surveillance by the country's army, despite Imran Khan's glib reassurances in Washington recently that the media in his country enjoy absolute freedom.
Journalists usually carry out their responsibilities through providing information about facts, which does not necessarily mean reporting about something or an action of the government but goes deeper as they emphasise providing power to the people so that they can be instrumental in a promotion of a democratic political process. People's participation in the process of governance through availing information from media no doubt deepens democracy.
Ensuring it requires freedom of the media as independence enables the calling of journalism to realise and act within its duties and responsibilities. In the very path of discharging their duties, journalists have to remain committed to non-partisanship and rule out obsequiousness of any sort. Nothing can be more dangerous for the media than journalists genuflecting in the face of intimidation, from any quarter.
Third world democracy is often condemned for not being able to uphold globally accepted norms. Among the factors cited is that the room for constructive criticism and thus freedom of expression, indeed of the media, shrinks only to accelerate the weakening process of democracy. Intolerance makes its way into every layer of society, and in this process, people's participation in democracy is reduced.
The more we struggle to deepen the roots of democracy the more we will need to develop in ourselves an attitude of broadening our views of the world we are part of.
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