Maravi

To govern is to communicate

To govern is to communicate
By The Post
Wed 24 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT

WHEN, in a family, the father decides, commands and eventually punishes, without listening to the opinion of others, it is a foregone conclusion that the peace of that home will last only as long as fear or infancy lasts. The day will come when the children will reject such parental authority and will rebel or leave the home. Or they will go out into life diminished.

True love for one’s country is, as it were, an extension of love for one’s family; it is a love given to a wider family. And that which holds within the narrow circle of the home also holds in the wider community which is the nation.

Adult people wish to be heard, to take part in discussion and in the decisions which affect their own lives within the national community. People desire to take part. A country is firm and united insofar as its citizens feel that they have a voice in its affairs.

This requires that each citizen be allowed one’s own opinion and the right to act with full responsibility and without fear in matters that affect him or her intimately.

In a Christmas message of 1944, Pope Pius XII wrote: “It is among the rights of citizens which found their expression in a democracy to express their points of view concerning the duties and sacrifices which are imposed on them, not to be forced to obey without being heard.”

Let us work to become a single people. We should not follow leaders blindly; we should critically examine their true intentions, and the direction in which they are leading us.

Is it to a richer, more satisfying life, to a life in which we are masters of our own destiny? Or, is it to new forms of expression, economic slavery and unfulfilled hopes?

Participation in the life of the country is not only a right; it is also a duty that each citizen should be proud to assume and exercise responsibly. People in positions of authority, in government and administration, have a particular duty to work for the restoration of a climate of trust and openness. However, participation will remain a fiction without the existence of adequate channels of expression and action: an independent press, open forums of discussion, free association of citizens for social and political purposes, and the like.

To govern is to communicate. As modern societies grow in size and complexity, the arena for communication and public debate is increasingly dominated by the news media: radio and television, newspapers, magazines, books, even the internet.

The news media in a democracy have a number of overlapping but distinctive functions. One is to inform and educate. To make intelligent decisions about public policy, people need accurate, timely, unbiased information. And since opinions are diverse, they also need access to a wide range of viewpoints.

This role is specially important during election campaigns, when few voters will have the opportunity to see, much less talk with, candidates in person. Instead, they must rely on newspapers and television to explain the issues and characterise the respective positions of candidates and their political parties.

A second function of the media is to serve as a watchdog over government and other powerful institutions in the society.

By holding to a standard of independence and objectivity, however imperfectly, the news media can expose the truth behind the claims of governments and hold public officials accountable for their actions.

If they choose, the media can also take a more active role in public debates. Through editorials and investigative reporting, the media can campaign for specific policies or reforms that they feel should be enacted.

They can also serve as a forum for individuals and organisations to express their opinions through letters to the editor and the publishing of articles with divergent points of view.

Commentators point to another increasingly important role for the media: “setting the agenda.” Since they can’t report everything, the news media must choose which issues to report and which ones to ignore. In short, they decide what is news and what isn’t.

These decisions, in turn, influence the public’s perception of what issues are most important. Unlike countries where the news media are government-controlled however, in a democracy they can’t simply manipulate or disregard issues at will.

Their competitors, after all, as well as the government itself, are free to call attention to their own list of important issues.

As we have repeatedly stated, few would argue that the news media always carry out these functions responsibly.

Newspaper reporters and television correspondents may aspire to a standard of objectivity, but the news is inevitably filtered through the biases and sensibilities of individuals and the enterprises for which they work.

They can be sensational, superficial, intrusive, inaccurate and inflammatory. The solution is not to devise laws that set some arbitrary definition of responsibility or to licence journalists, but to broaden the level of public discourse so that citizens can better sift through the chaff of misinformation and rhetoric to find the kernels of truth.

Looking at things this way it’s easy to understand why German Ambassador to Zambia Frank Meyke says that “a free and independent media is an indispensable prerequisite for democracy,” and adds:

“In democratic countries, citizens expect journalists to bring about transparency in financial, economic and political matters. This is the way to successfully combat corruption, ensuring sustainable democracy and helping to improve the living standards and the quality of life of those many millions of people still living in poverty and under inhuman conditions.”

The press, therefore, plays, or should play, a vital role in society. Its presence is a tangible sign of freedom of expression which is one of the pillars of democracy. The press is a watchdog over a nation. Journalists have a duty to serve the truth with charity and not to stoop to defamation, injustice, malice and lies. As St John says, “The truth will make you free” (John 8:32).

Unfortunately, what we often read about is lots of misinformation or distortion of the truth. Many journalists write to please their employers. In the name of freedom of expression, we sadly see truth being ignored and replaced with lies and propaganda.

Certain people have suffered reprisals for honestly expressing and living up to their convictions. Exposing injustices can often be misconstrued by those concerned as backing one or the other camp; revealing some evils in our society is sometimes seen as slandering the government, the opposition or their leadership.

We need a sound, independent and responsible press. We need to encourage, support and promote this kind of press and not to suppress it.

The purpose of press freedom is to educate the society so that it can benefit from the truth and can learn from the information obtained. The truth has to be authentic and reported correctly following the ethics of journalism. The freedom of the press carries with it a responsibility of reporting the truth in a way that builds up the society, not spreading of lies and half-truths with a view to serving some vested interests.
Freedom of the press is basic to any civilised society and includes the freedom to hold and express a line of thinking that is distinct from that of the government.

The enjoyment of the freedom of speech would require that the government allows the people who hold a different line of political thinking an open forum to express their views without government interferences.

We all know that freedom of expression is a fundamental right of every human being. This right is also enshrined in our Constitution. While this right is not absolute, it is a matter of justice that it is given to all without discrimination and irrespective of the issue involved.
The respect for the freedom of opinion and expression requires an acknowledgement by each politician and each political party, as well as each individual and each group in our country, of the fact that no person and no group can hold a monopoly of truth and wisdom.

As such, room should be left for an alternative line of political thinking that is wiser and richer than one’s own. It also requires the acknowledgement and respect of each person as an intelligent being, capable of independent thinking and independent opinion.

Truly, no one person can claim to have a monopoly of truth and wisdom. And equally, no individual or group of individuals can pretend to have all the resources needed to guarantee the progress of our country.

The contribution of the most humble members will always be necessary for the good running of our country.

The people must never be reduced to a mass of subjugated beings vis-à-vis their rulers, but rather be treated as conscious, intelligent and responsible citizens, while those in authority for their part playing their role as servants of the people, conscious of the liberating mission which is theirs and which they have to carry out in a spirit of love and justice.

Human beings have an inner propensity to search for the truth and to voice out that truth. This is enhanced within a climate of freedom of thought and expression.

Moreover, human persons are honoured – and this honour is due to them – whenever they are allowed to search freely for the truth, to voice their opinions and be heard, to engage in creative services of the community in all liberty within the associations of their own choice. Nobody should ever have to suffer reprisals for honestly expressing and living up to their convictions: intellectual, political or religious. We can only regret that this is not always the case in our country.

We can be grateful that freedom of worship is respected. The same freedom does not exist when it comes to translating faith into daily life. Exposing injustices can be very costly; revealing some evils of our society is seen as slandering the country and its government.

Real democracy in our country has to be built on the basis of justice and moral values and has to look to the common good. The right to participation in governments requires not only democratic structures, but also the reign of democratic values in our minds, in the minds of all our leaders and all our people.

Democratic structures without the corresponding democratic values in the hearts and minds of the people are rootless. There is a need for a democratic culture characterised by the respect of the rights of every citizen, of the human rights of all.

The democratic form of government, like all human institutions, is full of shortcomings, but it is the form that suits the human person best, as an intelligent and free being in the building of his future. But you can only build a society with the free cooperation of all its members.

A human being finds fulfilment in committing one’s whole person in freedom to the service of one’s fellow citizens, human beings.

But this is very different from forcing a person into a situation, even for a limited time, which allows little or no regard for his or her human dignity.

It is only in this way that we can transform this nation that is inclined to greed, selfishness, corruption, vanity and hatred into a new creation capable of love, compassion, solidarity and generosity.

Labels: JOURNALISM

posted by MrK @ 4:54 AM