Free, fair press and national development

THE press, commonly known as the mass media has been undergoing unreasonable changes since the last decade. The reason for which it was inaugurated seems close to an extinctive catastrophe.

The press is the outreach of the voices, pleas and cries of the grassroots on national matters or issues concerning their sovereign state. It is meant to look into the affairs of the state, grab relevant information, send it to the government and give feedback. It is even the press that advocates a state’s activity or the recent happenings in it that are seen by international bodies and boards.

They act as a national commission programme between the people (electorate) and the government; reasons for their existence but so far, they have been lacking in discharging their duties and are working on preferred objectives, the mutual co-existence between two parties; government and the people. The press of recent is no longer known as a free and fair press but rather a favouritism press.

  This has led to loss of lives and properties as those who cannot praise or criticise government policies except through the press now do it openly and are exposed to the ricocheting aggressiveness of their political counterparts. No one is safe after openly criticising the government or expressing any form of agitation or even praise which is not coherent.

  John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States of America once made a public review that a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. Yes! Afraid in the sense that they may act as stumbling blocks in their international relations pertaining to the democratic activities to the detriment of their affairs. For this reason, the free press was established as a public commission body charged with the duty of looking into praises, criticisms and agitations of the citizenry who cannot raise their heads high in the sun but have a reasonable say in the nation’s affairs before discharging it.

  Presently, even the free press is being counter bullied by government officials. The free press is not just a body but made up of individuals, persons that come together to form it. Under this body, the individuals discharge their duties but what happens when they are as individual citizens, carrying out other activities in the state. We don’t want to make voices of the aftermaths.  

  The free press should also take into account it’s duties as a fair body- acknowledging rights and criticising wrongs where necessary. It is an inevitable factor of the human nature to express favouritism on its so revered or idolised party. The fair press is a press with undoubted neutrality in discharging its duties. It must be able to see right as right and acknowledge wrong as wrong; in order words, call a spade a spade with the eradication of favourite party idealism. If this does not exist, then, we cannot have a free press. One of the major resolutions to this during problem is adequate security for maintenance of law and order within the state, for the people in particular, who are living in the underground world of the country.

  The press should be equipped with independent security officers for the discharge of its duties and for its respective components; the people in it. But first, insecurity should be curbed by adequate and tight security in state (reliable security in that sense), then individual protection of the press can follow suit. On the interest of fairness, absolute neutrality is needed and this can only stand on the grounds of morality and uprightness. Men still exist who posses these virtues and if these are considered, there will be no doubt that we have a fair press.

  If these are achieved, there is no reasonable doubt that national development will be achieved by the people through their voices. “All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them”–Galileo Galilei.