Media has a crucial role to play in democracy

ONE of the sad realities of the new South Africa is that while its citizens talk so glibly about their new democracy, many just do not fully understand how it is supposed to work.

Apart from acting as a political system to ensure free and fair elections and the rule of law in the country, democracy must also serve to promote active participation by the people in politics and civic life, and to protect the human rights of all.

It is for this reason that citizens have an important obligation to become informed about public issues; to keep a watchful eye on how the political leaders they have voted into office use their powers; and to actively express their own opinions and interests on issues that affect their lives, their rights and their well-being.

This is why the media has such a crucial role to play in shaping a healthy democracy.

Newspapers, television, radio and other media are the eyes and ears of the people. They serve to make citizens in a democracy aware of various social, political and economic activities taking place around them; they help educate and inform people, not only by reporting the facts, but also by offering comment and opinion on issues.

When political hooligans are allowed to go around threatening journalists simply because they don’t agree with what they are reading in print or seeing on screen, we should be very worried about the state of our young democracy.

We saw evidence of this threat raise its ugly head last week when elements in the Black First Land First movement targeted the home of journalist Peter Bruce in Joburg, protesting noisily and spray-painting the words “land or death’’ on the garage door.

Other senior journalists, especially those who have been strongly critical of rampant corruption in the country and persistent allegations of collusion between certain cabinet ministers and the scandal-prone Gupta family, have also come under threat.

To further aggravate matters, we have still not seen any senior leader in government stand up and publicly condemn such acts of blatant political thuggery.

We realise that the relationship between government and the media is traditionally fraught with problems, not only here in South Africa, but all over the free world.

But journalists have a duty and obligation to search for the truth and unearth and expose all instances of malfeasance and corruption. If corruption is allowed to flourish unabated, it is the public that suffers in the end.

We ignore this very real and sinister threat to freedom of the media at our peril.