Journalists Under Attack

A surefire symptom that democracy in a nation is under threat is when attempts are made to silence the press from exposing malfeasance in public institutions, and other politically sensitive situations. Governments of this modern era react frantically to scandals or perceived scandals involving their administrations, and journalists who take seriously their equivalent of the medical Hippocratic oath, often find themselves in the sights of zealous governmental and political operatives out to silence their voices, or the messages they are in the course of delivering.

In the US, an investigation is being conducted over the leaking of an intelligence operative’s name to the media. Her husband disagreed with certain claims leading up to the Iraq war, and wrote an OP ED piece in the New York Times in that regard. Apparently in retaliation, as the story goes, she was outed to Administration friendly journalists, and one proceeded to publish her identity in his weekly column. Fortunately in the US, no one, not even a President is immune from the law, as Nixon’s political demise because of his conduct in the Watergate Burglary evidences.

Literally hundreds of journalists have been assassinated this year, either by government agencies or by insurgency forces. Although the killing of prominent ones like Paul Klebnikov, who was an American and associated with Forbes Magazine among other publications, receive world wide coverage, the passing of the vast majority fall by the wayside, except for mention in the obituaries in the annals of NGOs like “Reporters Without Borders”. Like Arnulfo Villanueve, a columnist for a community newspaper in the Philippines who was apparently gunned down in February for criticizing local officials for their involvement in illegal gambling. Or Relangi Selvarajah, a popular Tamil broadcaster who, along with her activist husband, was gunned down in Colombo Sri Lanka in August. Incidentally Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was assassinated on the same day, and the Government is pointing fingers at the Tamil Elam organization for all three killings. But be that as it may, the fact is that journalists committed to bringing the truth to public view too often find themselves in cross hairs of forces averse to having their dirty laundry exposed.

I am writing this because of a disturbing report I read in a Guyanese Independent Daily recently. And it is indicative of a belief, not overtly widespread at the moment but perceptually growing, that the State is uncomfortable with scrutiny of its performance. In this report action that is internationally acceptable in the course of a journalistic investigation was being categorized by Officialdom as a crime. And what cements the notion that these kinds of reactions are panicky and frantic is the fact that the “man in the street” already knew what was going on. I will not castigate the individual official who lost sight of discretion in response to a scandalous situation. I kind of liked his confrontational approach to the villains who issued threats to him because of his investigations. But what I would like to say to him and others carrying the chalice of power is that; "you set the tone for peoples’ reaction to journalist involved in a justifiable expression of their trade". "Threats of prosecution being leveled against them in such pursuits, are no different than threats issued against you yourselves when you are in lawful execution of your official functions". "THINK".

A human society, in a broad sense, consist of three elementary groups of people. (1) Officialdom, represented by institutions of Government and Politics. (2) The Press, all aspects of media dedicated to information gathering and proliferation, and (3) The Public, comprising every soul detached from the previous two. Although in a democracy it is routinely claimed that power reside in the hands of the last group, in reality, particularly in developing nations, that power can generally be exercised sans restraint by the first group. The limiting agency, or restraint on the first group is the second group, the press, comprising journalists and reporters who are the gatherers and disseminators of information to the public. They are the un-official private detectives who keep tabs on the doings of Officialdom and report what is appropriate and important to the public. They are the referees who keep a keen eye on the interaction between Officialdom and the Public in order to ensure that there is no hitting below the belt or gouging so to speak. They are the eyes and ears, and when necessary voice of a Public, who, too often, are blind and deaf to the machinations of those they placed into power and pay from their taxes, and absent the means of vocalizing their complaints and concerns. A free and independent press, through the agency of courageous, fair and objective journalism fills this vacuum in the power equation between the group inaugurated into office to govern, and the masses in the category by whose leave they do govern

Keith R Williams
Atlanta, Georgia