In 1993 the UN General Assembly proclaimed May 03 as World Press Freedom Day. It proposed the celebration to be a reminder to every government to respect and honour freedom of expression and media.
It is also meant to be a day for all media professionals to reflect upon media ethics and moral principles in the execution of their duty to humanity.
The Press freedom Day is expected to focus on the following during this celebration:
“celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom;
assess the state of press freedom throughout the world;
defend the media from attacks on their independence;
and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty”
The Theme of 2020 is: JOURNALISM WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR
According to the UN, the sub-themes for this year are:
- Safety of women and men journalists and Media workers.
- Independent and professional journalism free from political and commercial influence.
- Gender equality in all aspect of the Media and
- Pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
In today’s world, when national governments are diversified into Presidential autocracy, Democracy, Republics based on religion etc, freedom of the press needs a relook. There is greater need to ensure respect for human beings and full enjoyment of individual freedoms and fundamental rights under the rule of law.
In this respect, for the progress of a nation and for the development of its people, free discussion of ideas, open exchange of views, and voicing of opinions are very important. These form essential aspects of the press and press freedom.
The Press is expected to disseminate news, express views and encourage open discussion and help form critical opinions among the people. The views and woes of the people are brought to the notice of the government by the media so that the government can act upon them for the welfare of the nation without bias or bitterness.
Press has an important commitment to society. Hence, in nations where intolerant and autocratic governments function, a fair minded press can help create an atmosphere of peace, tolerance and good governance.
Even in nations where democracies function, power hungry leaders and a crawling bureaucracy can make life impossible for its citizens. That is where the Press or the Media is expected to be the honest fourth pillar of democracy.
If the Press has to function as the fourth pillar of democracy, it cannot be an obliging media. Obliging the powers that are! The obligation of the press is to society, not to the powers that are.
But it is unfortunate that the media is getting characterised more and more as an obliging media. It is an open truth that it is the media barons who run the show. To run their empire, they have to play the fiddle according to the tunes of the powers that are.
No wonder, the once powerful investigative journalism is being shelved as a relic of the past. It is vey unfortunate that the much of the Indian media is being given the honorific name as ‘Godi Media,” meaning media in the lap of their patrons. It is very well imaginable who these patrons are in the present circumstances.
In addition, the social media is playing havoc by dishing out, for free consumption, toxic materials like fake news, falsified information, communally inflated clips and what have you.
Especially in this tragic Covid pandemic period, the media world is getting flooded, tsunami-like, with news distortion, misinformation, false advice, biased news which is intended to divide communities on religious lines, paid news, etc. It appears that, out of fear of repercussion, media agencies pay either a submissive role or hide the truth from the public. It has been reported that IT cells owned by parties are doing a roaring business from behind the scene to dish out misinformation campaign.
No investigative journalists are seen around to ferret out the truth, because people who speak out or express their critical opinions can be picked up by so-called law enforcing agencies as anti-nationals. Hence, the media crawls under constraint.
It is important to note the worlds of the UN Secretary General António Guterres:
”As the [COVID-19] pandemic spreads, it has also given rise to a second pandemic of misinformation, from harmful health advice to wild conspiracy theories. The press provides the antidote: verified, scientific, fact-based news.”
Let the Press, in Covid season or out of Covid season, perform its honest role to provide the public with ‘verified, scientific, fact-based news’ and, thereby redeem its fast eroding glory.