The writer, Michael Petit Mawugbe, is President of OPAG and Managing Editor for Petito Media Group
Journalism, according to Joseph Pulitzer, is speaking truth to power. Journalists play a crucial role in holding those in power accountable, shedding light on important issues, and giving voice to marginalised communities.
It therefore beats one’s imagination and becomes unconscionable when people attack journalists just for doing their job.
It is important to note that attacks on journalists undermine the very fabric of democracy, stifling free speech and the public’s right to information. For how long would journalists suffer attacks from the hands of people who benefit most from journalism as a profession?
Geraldo Rivera’s “The Courage of Journalism is sticking up for the unpopular, not the popular” gives credence to why journalists at times go beyond the cordon.
The attacks on the GHOne TV reporter by a police superintendent just for refusing to leave the chaotic scene was not only condemnable but despicable to say the least, as it defies logic. What the police officer must know is that a journalist refusing to leave an area that has not been declared a security zone does not commit any crime, hence has no right whatsoever to hit the journalist, assuming without admitting that that was the case.
What the police officer did is akin to silencing critical voices as attacks on journalists can lead to self-censorship and a lack of critical reporting.
It is important to emphasise that violence against journalists erodes public trust in institutions and the media, a situation that undermines our fledgling democracy and compromises the integrity of democratic processes.
There can never be a press freedom when journalists are attacked here and there for no apparent reason. We can’t be oblivious of the fact that the rights and safety of Journalists are essential for the deepening of our democracy, less press freedom. This, therefore, should be a clarion call for all Journalists to come together to say a Big NO to attacks on us.
The era of holding press conferences when Journalists are attacked must give way for actionable actions anchored with specific, concrete and practical steps taken, leading to tangible results; failure of which the aforementioned is just a voguish bravado.
If the media, for that matter, journalists remain the fourth estate of the realm as literature succinctly propounds, then that statement can not be a mere “palm oil with which words are eaten” but should be a reckoning force that makes meaning of the expression.
If the principles of the Fourth Estate are anything to go by, then OPAG maintains that ‘Attackers of Journalists are enemies of the state’.
At this juncture, governments and institutions of state, especially the security agencies, must ensure the safety and security of journalists at all times to enable them to discharge their duties without fear or intimidation.
OPAG, a group of dynamic and vibrant journalists, in this regard, would like to condemn in no uncertain terms the attacks on journalists during the Ablekuma North rerun and call for stiffer punishment for the perpetrators.
