PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED
By Kabs Kanu
Every profession has its occupational hazards and dangers. With journalism, the hazards are more dangerous than many other professions. Journalists face numerous perils like beatings, torture, arrests, incarceration, shootings, kidnappings , executions
and bad- mouthing everyday. I, in particular, started being threatened, beaten, insulted and deprived for my views from my school days when I ran a handwritten classroom newspaper and I have been to jail two times for criticizing governments.
The United Nations describes Journalism as one of the most dangerous professions in the world.
During a briefing to World Press Institute Fellows at the Newseum in Washington DC, Terry Wolkerstorfer stated that “Violence against journalists has reached unprecedented levels and the situation is now critical “.
Reporters Without Borders’ Pauline Ades- Mevel at the launching ceremony of the 2019 Press Freedom Index complained that “The number of countries regarded as safe where journalists can work in a proper condition in complete security is declining month after month, week after week. We have seen that authoritarian regimes are tightening their grips on the media everywhere . This is extremely worrying . Information is a right in theory and in practice it is not so anymore “.
Sierra Leone, a country once regarded not only as the Athens of West Africa but the Fleet Street of Africa is one of the most dangerous countries to be a journalist today( That is, if you do not massage the dictators’ egos).
Realizing this, most newspapers in the country today have allowed themselves to be muzzled and most of the country’s journalists have turned sycophants and bootlickers, especially under the present dictatorial regime of former junta leader , Maada Bio.
Very few journalists in Sierra Leone today speak the truth and you could name just a few newspapers that are standing up for the truth. You can count them on the fingers of your right hand.
Knowing that it is a very dangerous profession, journalists must get accustomed to the hazards . You can never practice your profession, minus the hazards if you want to really speak truth to power and supporters and beneficiaries of the government.
Journalists who tow the government line are free from dangers, especially in an era when the opposition has become compromised, diluted by opportunism and very weak. If you find any journalist receiving praise, pats on the back and smooch on the cheeks, that journalist has betrayed the profession and gone the way of Balaam in the Bible. It is absolutely impossible for criminals in the government to love you and praise you, if you are really standing. Journalists who say it as it is are the bitter enemies of the government and its supporters, cronies, compeers, hobnobbers, hangers-on, playfellows, leeches and accomplices.
The amount of insults , affront, verbal abuse, indignity, scorn, slander, discoursey, vilification, rudeness, vituperation you suffer everyday on social media for not towing the government line and for asking the critical questions and criticizing the misrule, miscues, missteps , slipups, fluffs,misgovernance, impunity, human rights abuses and disregard for law and constitution of the government are humongous. You are walking on a minefield day in and day out.
So, the question is, should journalists quit questioning Government’s bad governance, corruption ,gaffes, crimes and screw ups so they will no longer be misunderstood, abused and threatened ? The answer is NO. Any journalist who actually loves his job and is true to it must develop a thick skin to verbal insults , physical harm and even death because you cannot take them from the equation.
Democracy has been brutally murdered in Sierra Leone by the Maada Bio Government. Most of the media, civil society, professional bodies and the intelligentsia have been bought over or compromised for filthy lucre . To quit because you are being insulted will be a cruel disservice to the ordinary man in the street who depends on your analyses, perspectives, viewpoints, outlooks ,opinions , standpoints , judgements , convictions and perceptions of governance in the country.
Whenever you want to give up because of threats, insults, put-downs, beatings and other dangers, think of that man or woman, teacher or professor, doctor or nurse, laborer or cleaner, police or factory worker whose only source of reading something different about the misdeeds of the government is YOU. People might play down your importance and worth but you must never buy it. As a journalist, you are a very important cog in the machinery of governance and life in general and you have many people you do not know who depend on you for your insights and opinions on how your country is being governed. So, never quit.
As for me, I have learnt to be thick – skinned. I have learnt from decades practicing this profession that you can place some of the people some of the time; you can please many of the people most of the time, but you cannot please all the people all the time —And your job is not to please people. Any.journalist who has made up his mind to please people has missed the mark and ceased being a journalist.
So, for you, the motto should be : PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED. Even if the heavens fall, PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED. Even if the Herods demand your head on the platter, PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED. Say it as you see it , even if bullets to your heart. PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED.
One day, we will be judged not by what we said, but what we did not say when it mattered most and when we were depended upon by that disaffected compatriot out there who prayed for somebody to say it for the oppressed, suppressed, abused, robbed and hurt.
GAME OVER, GAME ON.
PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED.
I remain your humble servant, KK.
