World Press Freedom

Last Saturday (May 3rd 2014) World Press Freedom Day, defined by the United Nations as “celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence; pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.” (http://www.un.org/en/events/pressfreedomday).

It has seemed from following the news over the last year that freedom of the press has become an ever diminishing commodity. This has perhaps been shown in stark reality by the United Kingdom dropping four places in the Press Freedom Index to 33^rd out of 180 countries (http://www.un.org/en/events/pressfreedomday).

It is all too easy for proponents of press freedom to condemn countries such as Egypt, where three Aljazeera journalists have just had their appeal rejected for a second time today. The fight for press freedom can be lost in the battle against countries and governments. For the average man in the street it is only the figures which count, if that. Sixteen journalists killed this year alone, a further 168 imprisoned.

The fight for press freedom is not a battleground against countries though. Nor is it a crusade against governments. Press Freedom is something which lies in our hearts and our minds. The greatest threat to Press Freedom is through our own media.

We live in a world where the news which is published is the news which will sell. Media is a business after all, there is no profit in running stories which will not entice readers. It is readers which pay the bills at the end of the day.

In recent weeks more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped, little is known about their fate. This story and countless others have been buried at best, ignored at worst. They make readers feel uncomfortable over their breakfasts. It is far easier to run front pages of the faces of evil, of those we know and can feel superior to. I speak of course of Max Clifford and his ilk.

It is this process of censorship through economics which is killing press freedom. It is a slow decline as we seek the news which will sell the papers as opposed to the news which matters which is the greatest threat.

Freedom of the press must mean the freedom to be the voice which tells those who do not know the thinks which they should know. Instead it has become a timid whisper, fearful of disturbing advertisers and consumers.

Where once journalists where inviolable lest the wrath of the press reign down upon those who had harmed them, a romantic but not entirely forgotten ideal, now they are treated as targets and hostages. The world has changed but not so much that this has happened without the input of the media itself.

The presses self-censorship and scandal has weakened it. It is now looking only to survive through funding, where once people trusted the media now they look on it with scorn. This is the heart of our loss of freedom, our failure to stand for the lost ideals of journalism and freedom.