Freedom of THe Press and Freedom of Expression.

Freedom of Press, Freedom of expression:

Our Basic Human Rights

While the Government controlled media has refused to comment on the issue of the amendment of the broadcasting bill, people concerned by this development have been asking questions especially at a time when the leader of the country addressed the community of French Speaking countries promoting the advance of technology in Seychelles. How can one make sense of all this static in this issue of communication?

Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of any democratic society. It is a basic human right, to be enjoyed by all peoples, regardless of cultural, religious, ethnic or other backgrounds. The founding members of UNESCO enshrined in its Constitution “the free exchange of ideas and knowledge” as well as “the free flow of ideas by word and image” as the very basis of international cooperation in the fields of education, science and culture.

After the Seychelles Presidential election of 2006, one of the recommendation from the report of the Commonwealth Expert team was that: “an enabling democratic environment should be encouraged further by addressing the current prohibitive cost of establishing and operating radio and television stations by private and/or community interests”. This according to the team was part of the ‘sentiments shared by the vast majority of persons with whom [they] spoke.”

In real life, there is always a gap between what is and what ought to be done. Because of this gap, citizens are expected to take it as their duty to bridge the gap. In modern governance, civil societies take up the task. This is so as to encourage progressive governance and eliminate restrictive governance. Often, those in the civil societies can spot a lot of the inequality that takes place, and this provides the opportunity to attempt to change those inequalities with equal opportunity and in that way, achieve a community, a society where people have a sense of belonging.

In order for the people to be well-informed of what is happening around them, the country needs independent and fair reports of the governance. In every society, the mass media takes on this important role in society. When this role is tampered with, the message becomes questionable and the people start doubting the government.

How can we eliminate this? Simple: encourage the practice of Freedom of Press. What is Freedom of Press you ask? The Encyclopedia of Journalism describes it such: Freedom of the press (or press freedom) is the guarantee by a government of free public press for its citizens and their associations, extending to news gathering organizations, and their published reports. It also extends to processes involved in obtaining information for public distribution.The Constitution of Seychelles (1993) guarantees this right

With respect to governmental information, a government distinguishes which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information as sensitive, classified or [secret]and being otherwise protected from disclosure due to relevance of the information to protecting the national interest. Many governments are also subject to laws or freedom of information legislation (as is the case in the US) that are used to define the ambit of national interest. If Seychelles do not have this we need to amend our Broadcasting laws on that point.

Many people do not quite get the meaning of “Freedom of Press” in a democratic society and this includes many of the members of the governing bodies. Freedom of the press implies that all people should have the right to express themselves in writing or in any other way of expression of personal opinion or creativity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights indicates: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers”.

Freedom of the press is an extremely problematic concept for most non-democratic systems of government since, in the modern age, strict control of access to information is critical to the existence of most non-democratic governments and their associated control systems and security apparatus. To this end, most non-democratic societies employ state-run news organisations to promote the propaganda critical to maintaining an existing political power base and suppress (often very brutally, through the use of police, military, or intelligence agencies) any significant attempts by the media or individual journalists to challenge the approved “government line” on contentious issues. In such countries, journalists operating on the fringes of what is deemed to be acceptable will very often find themselves the subject of considerable intimidation by agents of the state. This can range from simple threats to their professional careers (firing, professional blacklisting) to death threats, kidnapping, torture, and assassination. The incidents in the premises of our Parliament building this week appear to be an indication of a slide towards this standard. And yet, be mindful, Seychelles is labelled as a democratic country.

There is a code called journalism ethics. Journalism ethics and standards include principles of ethics and of good practice to address the specific challenges faced by professional journalists. Historically and currently these principles are most widely known to journalists as their professional “code of ethics” or the “canons of journalism.” The basic codes and canons commonly appear in statements drafted by both professional journalism associations and individual print, broadcast, and online news organizations. While various existing codes have some differences, most share common elements including the principles of — truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impar-tiality, fairness and public accountability — as these apply to the acquisition of newsworthy information and its subsequent reportage to the public. How many of our journalists especially those working for the government owned (read publicly funded) mass media organisations abide to these ethics. This is a matter for their conscience. But as well-known American journalist, Tony Burman, once said; “Every news organization has only its credibility and reputation to rely on.”

UNESCO promotes freedom of expression and freedom of the press as a basic human right. Every citizen has a right to ask the government that he/she elected or who has been elected to govern the country to respect and honor that right. There is a pressing need for media diversity in this country; we need to do everything to encourage this. The solution is not to impose restrictive legislation. In a democratic society, we cannot encourage secretive governance.

(Contributed)