Appreciate what journalists stand for

By on January 15th, 2009 In Media

I’ve lived here in the U.S. for about 15 years and I may not be the first to tell you that we take our freedoms WAY too way too much for granted. We argue about comment moderation, or get incensed about whether someone has a right to wear a rude T-shirt on a plane. But seldom do we communicators face life and death decisions.

Last week, an editor of a leading newspaper in Sri Lanka was murdered. His crime? Being critical of the existing government. He is the second senior journalist I knew who was killed just for doing his job. Last year another journalist, someone with whom I hung out in college, was arrested and is still in jail. His crime? For managing a web site (!) that questioned government policy.

It always happens somewhere else. Bloggers in China or journalists in Angola. Sometimes we see it here, to the likes of Amy Goodman or Judith Miller. Institutions and governments will always find ways to silence or muzzle the news media. I recently stood by the ‘exhibit’ of Don Bolles’ car at the Newseum in Washington DC. If you see that gaping hole and the twisted metal, you’ll appreciate that this doesn’t always happen ‘elsewhere.’

So the next time you meet a journalist, please remember to thank that person for doing such a thankless job. Especially now, when so many of them are being shown the door. You may not like what they say, or you may have a totally opposite point of view, but that’s a freedom this profession shouldn’t have to die for.

Comments

tyler Hurst Says:
January 15th, 2009 at 1:10 pm

Freedom is worth dying for.

If these countries wanted freedom bad enough, they’d get it. They do not and that’s why they allow themselves to be controlled.

I am quite thankful for my freedoms, but journalists EXERCISE that right, they don’t fight for it (well, most of them).

Rebecca I. Allen Says:
January 16th, 2009 at 10:51 am

Well said!
on behalf of fellow journos worldwide- thank you.

Kathy Kerchner Says:
January 16th, 2009 at 10:56 am

Angelo, I whole heartedly agree. And I fear that as journalists become fewer and fewer, we will lose our most important watchdogs.

Richard Says:
January 16th, 2009 at 12:09 pm

In 2008 I authored an article in the Arizona Republic about World Press Freedom Day. This day should be as important as Thanksgiving or Mother’s Day, yet few people know about it. Who will help me celebrate this year? Bet not even the Republic will cover it. http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/press/

Foreign journalist can go to jail for using Internet not authorized by the “state” in Cuba.

Fighting for freedom of the press goes on today. To call yourself a PR practitioner, you must know journalism, and part of journalism education is studying its history, including John Peter Zenger. Blood has flowed in streets from thousand fighting for freedom of the press. Idi Amin slaughtered thousands in Uganda for it. It was the basis of the Tiananmen Square (天安門廣場) clash of 1989. “According to initial reports from the Chinese Red Cross, there were 2,600 casualties,” Wikipedia stated.

If that is not fighting for freedom of the press, what is? Yet, 20 years later, China does not have a free press.

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