Press Freedom

NEWS COMMENTARY On THE CELEBRATION OF WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

In 1993, the UN General Assembly proclaimed May 3 as World Press Freedom Day. This followed a recommendation adopted at the 26th Session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO General Conference held in Windhoek, Namibia, in 1991. The Day is used to celebrate press freedom, given the important role it plays in human development. The occasion is also used to remind governments globally about their duty to uphold the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Furthermore, press freedom activists use the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day to re-launch their weapons of warfare in respect of pens, microphones and cameras to defend the media against attacks on their independence, while paying glowing tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty. Over the years, UNESCO has been organizing an international conference from May 1 to May 3 to commemorate the Day.

However, due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic across the world, this year’s international celebration of the Day could not be held as originally scheduled. In keeping with the sage that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’, UNESCO has decided to combine the commemoration of Press Freedom Day and the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists from October 18 to October 20 in the Hague, Netherlands. The International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, which is another UN General Assembly proclamation, is originally celebrated on November 2 to remind UN member states about their mandate to end the growing culture of impunity against journalists.

According to the UN, in the past 12 years, more than one thousand journalists have been killed. In nine out of ten cases, the killers go unpunished. The Committee to Protect Journalists, a group of international journalists that defend the rights of journalists, also reported that as of December 30, 2019, twenty-five journalists had been killed in 13 countries worldwide. Also, there are many instances of media practitioners being jailed and brutalized, as well as media houses coming under attack.

Inasmuch as these statistics are very scary, they must not, in the least, put fear in journalists in the discharge of their sacred duty of getting the people informed. That is the motivation embedded in the theme for this year’s celebration of the Press Freedom Day: ‘Journalism without fear or favour’.The greater fear journalists must avoid, far from death and attacks, is the dearth of discernment the people may suffer as a result of the silence or inaction of fear-stricken journalists.

As Maya Angelou once said: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you”. Journalists must be bold to tell the story without fear of persecutors or favour for benefactors. Ghana’s press freedom regime under the Fourth Republic has been touted as one of the best in Africa.

However, recent attacks on the media, including threats on the lives of journalists, have blotted that image rather disappointingly. Although Chapter 12 of the 1992 Constitution is devoted to the freedoms and independence of the media, deviants of the rule of law have made nonsense of those constitutional provisions to visit mayhem on the media. But journalists must never flinch in the face of such attacks and in their commitment to promote the best interest of society.

It is instructive to note that telling the story without fear or favour imposes a duty on journalists to be accurate, fair and balanced in their reportage. In that regard, the media must be bold to tell the story as it is, calling right or wrong by their name, and damning whose ox is gored.

Happy World Press Freedom Day to all persons in the media worldwide.

BY KOFI YEBOAH, GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE GHANA JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION AND COMMUNICATIONS LECTURER AT WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, GHANA