Dawit
Mkiteku
We can see from history
that the Mass Media; which came to their present position by moving along with
the changing dynamics of the world, have negative impact nearly as much as
their positive impact. This is because as there are many Media that played a
huge role in speeding up countries’ economic growth and strengthening their democratic
order building, there have been also some media seen causing huge chaos and
destruction on other countries.
Thus, as there are
Media who played a constructive role like in Asia and Latin American countries,
in contrast looking at the Rwanda radio’s role in instigating the Rwanda Civil
war and Genocide will give us a view on its destructive role. Of course if the
Media isn’t utilized in the correct way, the danger it unleashes cannot be
underestimated.
As it’s known the Mass
Media have strong ties with their respective countries’ politico–economic order.
Their ownership and role is inevitably decided upon the political system. In
other words, a Mass Media of a certain country is a reflection of the country’s
regime or political system.
With regards to this,
if we are to look into the not so distant memories; we’ll find two sets of
politico–economic systems and Medias in our country. During the ‘Derg’ era,
Mass Media ownership and role was a reflection of the regime. As we all can
understand, with regards to the military government’s adhered politico-economic
system, it has for many years stifled freedom of expression and opinion. In
addition to the Mass Media being owned only by the government, the censorship law
has been used by the regime as a major stifling mechanism. In addition to this,
the Media instead of focusing on the people’s generational demand of democratic
rights and a government that has a way of poverty and backwardness, it
prioritized on working on propaganda campaign that would endure the regime’s
survival.
In contrast, with this
it has been able to answer the question of ‘free press’ which endured through
the years. And with it came the end of censorship. Following the new direction
the country took with regards to Media ownership, we have been able to see many
private publications that are twice as much as the government-bound Media.
This has guaranteed
citizens right for freedom of expression and opinion while the process is still
strengthening. It’s not very hard to realize that the Mass Media have strong
ties with the politico-economic system. With regards to this, there are two thinking
that has to do with the philosophical outlook on how the Mass Media should
operate, that differ based on their politico-economic system.
The first outlook is
the one held by the proponents of liberal politico-economic; which believes
that the major responsibility of the journalist in the Media is to present
information that will enable citizens to themselves freely. This is an effort
to peg the Mass Media as independent and free of the political-economic
ideology. This rationale is the direct result of the thinking that believes the
Mass Media responsibility only lies with protecting citizens’ rights. In the
flip side, the proponents of this same thinking still goes out with regards to
presenting information that will enable people choose for themselves freely in
a day-to-day basis is very hard. If looked at from a step back, we can easily
understand that the Mass Media, either directly or indirectly, is the
reflection of the political-economic system.
On top of this,
considering the media is controlled by the elite of the political-economic
establishment and also considering the strong link that exists between economic
domination and dominion of political ideology, it’s easy to understand that the
media have strong ties with the politico-economic establishment. As the owners
of the Mass Media in neo-liberal countries are the private entrepreneurs, they
are seen as business institutions that make their living on selling
information.
The second thinking is
a perspective reflected by some people who believe that the Mass Media should follow
a mixed ownership model in which they are owned by the public, the private
sector and the community simultaneously. They believe the role of the Media
should be to serve as a center where information exchange and debate between
citizens take place; to create healthy relation between the public, government
and the private sector; and to strengthen the democratic order. It also
believes that the media should be a hub for developing and expressing the
public’s tradition, values and experience; that strengthen accountability and
transparency with regards to what the government is doing, that expose lack of
good governance and corruption and that guarantee the sustainability of
economic development.
We can see that this
outlook looks at the Mass Media as a precursor of its developmental direction
and its capacity to entertain diverse opinions. What we can understand from
this is the necessity of ‘wearing clothes that fit us’. Of course as wearing
something too big or too small is more harmful than beneficial, the Mass Media
role should attuned to the political-economic establishment of that certain
country.
As I have tried to
mention it earlier, the Media and the political-economic ideology of the
country has strong ties; thus ‘every bird sings like its country’ should be the
working principle for the Media. As it is known our country’s government adheres
to a developmental and democratic system, and is garnering success by recording
two–digit economic growth for the last ten consecutive years. This
developmental ideology and path the government took to alleviate the country
from poverty and backwardness is part of its effort to adhere to an option that
takes the country’s realities on the ground into account.
Here we should note one
important thing. That’s it’s possible to develop outside of neo-liberal
political-economic ideology and philosophy. Also the fact that economic
development is not garnered by completely copying from other country’s system,
but by developing it from own realities on the ground.
Of course some
neo-liberal extremists, who didn’t like the fact that the FDRE government put
up a system that takes its own realities on the ground, tried to impose their
own will on it. There were also some forces that spewed criticism and sarcasm
at every possible opportunity they got.
As the saying “seeing is
believing” goes, the fact that FDRE government who was able to grow the
country’s economy and seen as an act to
follow by many, clearly suggests that the Media’s choice should also be
developmental too. As it’s known any country’s developmental and democratic
government follow a path that envision speeding up economic growth and
strengthening the democratic order building process. And the Mass Media has a
huge role to play for this to be a success. So, we find that developmental and
democratic governments tend to establish free press. With regards to our
country’s realities we will find that the Media the government follows a joint
Media ownership, while creating an enabling environment for the Mass Media to
play their own constructive role on speeding up the development and
strengthening the democratic order building process.
For this we can look at
the FDRE constitution where in article 29, sub-article 4 it’s clearly stipulates
that in order for ideas and opinions which are essential to the functioning of
a democratic order, the press shall, as an institution, enjoy legal protection
to ensure its operation independence and its capacity to entertain diverse
opinions.
This enables the
country’s Media to play their own role in helping our country achieve rapid and
sustainable development. As well all know guaranteeing economic development is also
an issue of guaranteeing the country’s survival. Also, strengthening our
country’s democratic order building, which has been the aspiration of our
people for many years; along with speeding up the development of the country is
an issue of guaranteeing the survival of the country is an existential issue.
Thus, we find out that the role the Mass Media have with regards to our
country’s reality and aspirations to establish a strong unity based on our
diversity and consent, is paramount.
In relation to our
country’s adhered politico-economic system, the Mass Media taking a joint
ownership model, it plays a supportive role for the three government branches
of the country. It is not part of the government branch itself. So what is the
role of our country’s mass media should be is speeding up the development, and supporting
the governments, the publics’ and the private sector’s anti-poverty struggle by
making development agenda their main priority.
In addition to this, Media
should play its own constructive role in making the government’s democratic
order building effort successful and thereby answering the publics’ generational
demand of democracy. Not only this. The agenda of the media should give
priority on guaranteeing the government work is accountable and transparent, on
exposing issues of good governance and corruption and on supporting the
democratic and developmental order. Also, they should give priority to entertain
diverse opinions and tradition, and their role in the betterment of the public.
I hope these constructive roles of the Media support our country’s Peace,
development and democracy culture building efforts of the Government.
No comments:
Post a Comment