When and how it should be exercised
BY TIMOTHY KALYEGIRA
There is a public debate in Uganda and around the world about the place of truth in the media. The public believes that often rather than act as the Fourth Estate, the media either colludes with the state or suppresses the truth they know about a public scandal or abuse of power. The questions around this subject are varied: Does the media actively conceal the truth or not? And where it does, is it because the media is guilty of complicity in suppressing the truth or are there other factors involved?
Should the truth be compromised? If so, will that still be press freedom as we know it? It should be stated that press freedom is a right to be exercised and not necessarily an obligation to be carried out.
In other words, where the press enjoys freedom, it has a right to exercise that right or not to exercise it. So, the more accurate way of putting it is that truth is very important for the wellbeing of a society and individual but it often needs to be handled with care. While the truth is important, it is not always wise to publish it or deliver it bare to the public.
Several examples will suffice.The first is for national security reasons. If the deployment, strength and weaknesses of the armed forces is known to the enemy during times of war, this can threaten not only the lives of soldiers but ultimately the country itself. The security services monitor the media of countries for any political, military and economic secrets they can obtain. It is known as open source intelligence. Without realising it, the media in publishing certain confidential details about the country’s mineral deposits, government contracts and so on, have given away state secrets to countries hostile to it.
A second example is when a news item or public matter is in the courts of law. The reason for this is that if a legal case is discussed by the public, it can influence the decision of the presiding judge, magistrate, prosecution or jury. Here, the media is under law required to desist discussion of a matter in court; it is not an option. Then, sometimes in areas like photojournalism and video news, ghastly photos of victims of violent crime or road accidents are withheld from the public to protect the dignity of the victims or their families.
Freedom of expression is one of the most abused of freedoms. The arrival of social media over the last 20 years, in which anyone anywhere can say or publish anything whether fair or not accurate or not, and the chaos, misrepresentation of facts, sensationalism, and insensitivity on these social media platforms, has reminded the public of the importance of responsible and professional journalism to society.
More and more people are starting to accept that social media needs a minimum of regulation or supervision. The other reason is one most people are familiar with: Journalists’ safety. In liberal democratic countries, freedom of speech by the public and freedom to publish news and opinion by journalists are taken for granted. In authoritarian countries, however, journalists are often the target of the state. They are among the few well-informed sections of society and they have a greater hold on the public than politicians and government officials. Governments, therefore, tend to clamp down on journalists as a means of retaining their hold on the state.
Sometimes, this involves death threats and actual state-orchestrated murders of journalists. Newspaper offices have been raided or even bombed. Media houses in authoritarian countries long ago decided on the adage that no story is worth a journalist’s life. If a story is felt to be too dangerous to the media house or the reporters, it is held back by the editors until such a time that it’s safe to publish it, or it is simply withheld altogether.
Finally, in communities and countries with deep ethnic or religious tensions, or disputes over land and water, false news reports can trigger off communal violence or genocide. Even if it is true, for example, that a Hindu girl was sexually assaulted by a Muslim man in a village in India, the media establishment would have to weigh the consequences of publishing it when the incident is still fresh, given how this can set off weeks of violent religious clashes and arson between Muslim and Hindu communities.
In summary, then, press freedom is a right that is best enjoyed when exercised by responsible individual journalists and media houses.
