In recent weeks, the Media Association of Jamaica (MAJ) and the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) jointly penned a letter to the Minister of Information lamenting the sorry state of traditional media on the island. From all indications, the letter, which made mention of an attached proposal, was seeking a hand from the government to help the industry get back on its feet.
Over the past decade, media, which comprise largely private entities in Jamaica and across the globe, have been struggling financially as the advertising dollar, which gives them sustenance, has shrunk beyond recognition. Large advertisers with hefty media budgets have turned to social media to promote their products and services, abandoning traditional media sources and starving them of vital income.
Even the government advertising spend, which is usually a massive chunk of the national budget, has been drastically curtailed. In many cases the state has been using public funds to favour its friends in the private media space and starving its foes or those who dare to question its decisions.
There have been many media mergers, downsizing and changes in format in order to address the continuing financial fallout. But dispatching the woes in writing to the government or going cap in hand was never the way of the free press.
Both the MAJ and the PAJ are well aware that an unencumbered press plays a specific and vital role as champions of the masses and voice of the voiceless, making the comfortable uncomfortable and giving hope to the hopeless.
Journalism’s objective is to balance the scale in this system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state.
A journalist’s role is to stand in the gap in this dispensation called a democratic society.
Historically, democracy has relied heavily upon the exchange of ideas relayed through the widespread distribution of information through traditional media platforms.
The free press must hold the government to account and the feet of the powerful to the fire. The press must demand truth and accountability. Where the media do not play that role, it is doubtful that true democracy exists.
While tonnes of information may be available in the social media space, journalistic rigour is absent. Furthermore, governments are bound by several core international agreements and legal frameworks that dictate how they must treat the press. Press freedom is deeply protected under the International Human Rights Law and the International Humanitarian Law.
News must objectively inform the public, provide checked information, analyses, and break down major events into something understandable, so that the public can gain from that knowledge.
Journalism is a public forum, and the practice should inspire people to mobilise and push for change for the better of the broader community.
Without a free press, there is no force that champions the cause of the people as a whole. In this environment, corrupt politicians who make decisions for the society and who implement the decisions and interpret the laws are likely to favour their friends and the most influential sectional interests, which wield enormous influence and power. They would resoundingly ignore or abuse the will of the people.
This is exactly what is at stake when you have a government that continues to demonstrate that it favours itself and its friends above the people.
So a corrupt government will seize the opportunity to finance the press. It does not want a free press; it wants a submitted prostitute.
This MAJ/PAJ letter, even without the proposal attached, suggests desperation and a willingness for media houses to bow to the mercy of a government that is on a path towards extreme totalitarianism.
This government wants total control of all pillars of society. It seeks to control the judiciary, the economy, the church, and the press. It recognises no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life.
Like a house, strong pillars are vital to maintaining the structure and holding the ceiling in place. Family, education, church, government, economy, media, and culture are the pillars which work together to maintain social order, stability, and human well-being. They act as the essential framework ensuring that political power remains with the people while preventing tyranny
But Jamaica in its current state is not the typical democracy. Tyranny is on the horizon. While there are constitutional elections and the evidence of structures, the government has been on a slow but steady creep to take full control of the church, the judiciary and the media.
Already, senior churchmen have been placed in positions of compromise by seminal secularists, and monies have been used to silence large sectors of the body.
Lawyers taking to the streets last week in protest against government overreach is highly unusual.
Journalists have been bought out by the government. Many have been placed in cushy communications jobs with attractive salaries, hence no longer available to do the muckraking, cross-checking, counter-balancing and heavy lifting required of the free press.
The press is far from perfect. It is true that journalists may inadvertently have a demobilising effect on a population as they provide people with information but do not advise them on what to do with it.
But, when the press is sold out to the government, the information coming to the people is skewed towards the government narrative; hard questions are rarely asked.
The MAJ and PAJ must recognise that by bowing to government, it is siding with systematic high levels of corruption, the rampant nepotism, the abuse of the dispossessed and the secret deals being signed behind the backs of the people.
He who pays the piper will call the tune.