Taking a swipe
BULA! I am currently on annual leave, which means I don’t get to read the news as often as I would love to. Blame that on my appreciation of rest and relaxation and “me” moments, the constant friendly catch ups and for completely going head over heels with Gandhi’s inspiring book “The Story of My Experiments with truth”, which I believe everyone should read.
However, just the other day I decided to buy a copy of The
Fiji Times, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, and found out that our letter writers were taking a swipe at one of our ministers for taking a swipe at this newspaper, yet again.
When this happens, I feel both worried and content. Worried because it has happened so many times that I fear it is new syndrome and content because it gives me the opportunity to give my two cents.
So far this year, I have already written three articles on media freedom and its underlying concepts.
This will be my fourth and if the swiping doesn’t stop then there’s more to come.
The swipe this week was because this paper supposedly failed in its duty to cover government stories.
That’s not true because the only regular and familiar photos in our papers are photos of government ministers “opening this” and “opening that” every now and again or “speaking at this place” and “speaking at that place” every now and again.
The relationship between governments and the media is a strained one.
This love and hate affair results from their different expectations of each other — the media’s job is to inform the public so that citizens can make informed choices on matters that affect them.
It also works to raise people’s concerns and in doing so it inevitably provides a platform where a diversity of political opinions and voices can be heard and amplified. The media expects government to be on its toes.
On the other hand, politicians are supposed to represent the interests of those who voted them in (and those who did not as well).
They are supposed to act on people’s concerns, when and where appropriate. When they fail, the media’s job is to hold them accountable by asking all the hard and upsetting questions.
But politicians often like guise their job description. They prefer to hear only good things about them and the many noble things they do.
Even when they fail to deliver the range of public services required of them and misuse public funds, which belong to the people, they continue to demand feel good stories in the press.
They feel that only nice stories need to be reported and the not so nice stories should be quickly swept under carpet. Unfortunately, democracies don’t operate that way (oops)!
Any negative story (according to their dictionary of the word negative) that exposes their laxity and makes them feel uncomfortable and distressed is strongly denounced and publicly ridiculed.
“You are being unfair and irresponsible!” they often say. The truth is government and the media cannot be friends. They are not enemies either. They are unlikely partners who must always exist together despite their differences.
They must accept the reality of stepping on each other’s n toes and breathing down each other’s necks once in a while.
This is healthy because in order for democracy to prosper and grow, constant oversight must remain so that at the end of the day, the people and the common good are served.
Sometimes governments own and run media organisations. The attention they get in terms of publicity may be unprecedented.
Any attempt by neutral and private media organisations to speak out the truth, again for the sake of the people and for the right reasons, is often viewed with distaste and suspicion.
I can clearly recall that when government bought shares in the Daily Post newspaper in 1999 (just before the elections), after already having its claws on radio and television, the move was met with public outcry.
Up until the sale, it had been government’s reform policy to sell off public assets that were not making money. But when it decided to buy 44 per cent shares in The Daily Post, which was seen as a peculiar change of policy direction, government copped the flak from various sectors of society. This paper provided the space where those diverse voices were heard and expressed.
University of the South Pacific’s Journalist Program coordinator David Robbie described the sale as “very worrying” and “ill-advised”, adding that government simply did not have “any business in running newspapers”.
Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry took his turn saying the move was “absolutely absurd”.
“It is a concern that the Government is on one hand divesting itself of business interest in most other sectors of the economy, while expanding control in the media,” said then Pacific Islands News Association president William Parkinson.
Fiji Media Council chairman Daryl Tarte said the Fiji media would not be able to exercise its responsibilities as a watchdog of government if so much of the media was in government control.
“The council considers this move a serious threat to media independence,” Mr Tarte said.
More than 20 decades since that sale, this newspaper continues with its duty to hold government accountable and providing its pages as safe spaces to construct the people’s last freedom frontier, when other pillars of democracy seem to fall apart.
We provided the people with a space when the Sitiveni Rabuka-led Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei government tried to stifle media freedom and we continue with our crusade and purpose, even if in doing so we become unpopular with the status quo.
We believe that if the media fails in its duty to hold government accountable every time and all the time, and if it abandons its role in encouraging pluralism in societal voices and opinions then democracy fails and when democracy fails the people (yes you and me) perish.
When government fails to see its own stories in The Fiji
Times, it is never because of any malicious intention or sabotage. It is simply because, there are other opinions and voices that need to be considered too. And when government finds its stories in our pages but not in the form it desires, again it is never due to rancour or dislike on our part.
This merely happens because we aspire to ensure that politicians do not steer away from the right path and from the promises made in return for the vote each citizen gave on elections day.
There are many media outlets in Fiji as there are reporters and journalists, but a genuine one cannot be bought. It has integrity and knows its exact and rightful place in society.
It is always passionate about informing the public on matters of great importance, stirring debate and constructive criticisms. It must seek out the truth, reports objectively, accurately and fairly. It respects everyone’s viewpoint and investigates all they hold dear.
When politicians take unnecessary swipe at the media or intimidate journalists, know that media independence and freedom may be under threat.
Know too that when this happens, then it is time to speak out the truth and defend your God-given, universal, inalienable, inherent and interdependent human rights and freedoms.
Until we meet again on this same page same time next week, it is my prayer that you stay blessed, stay healthy and stay safe.