The Press; a Propeller of Human Prosperity

It is no doubt universally acknowledged that the Press is the best propeller of human enterprises to prosperity as it is realised also that information is said to be power, wealth, knowledge and security.
Thus it is within this context that the Press becomes the Fourth Estate of the state in democratic governances throughout the world. This is because in a country whose representatives in government are democratically elected by the people and are answerable and accountable to them, the people therefore have the inalienable right to be informed of every decision and project taken on their behalf by the government.
Consequently, the Press is also endowed with the right to report every such decision, projects and programme to be in the public interest to be taken up by the government in the name of the people and on their behalf.
It is indeed this role of the Press that earns it the nomenclature of the “Watchdog” of the public interest. Even though it does not have the elected mandate to do so, it does have the consent and empowerment of the people together with a constitutional backing to expose matters of public concern; good or bad.
Nonetheless, even if the event is being reported balanced and squarely in the Press, the journalist as well as the paper which carries the story would incur blames for the negative side of the story. Hence journalism is said to be a dangerous path to thread on, indeed.
Inspite of this, journalism is a fundamental requirement in the realisation of freedom of speech, accountability and transparency in all public undertakings.
For it is not all a sugar coated poison. The journalist is governed by the event he is covering and he has to report all the pleasant happenings of the event so as to inspire others to emulate it and on the contrary, as well as to report the bad things of the event.
The journalist is indeed sandwiched in a difficult plight; for if he reports all good he is called a praise singer and a check-book journalist. Worst of all is that if anything unpleasant in accordance with the event is reported he is branded an enemy. Thus he is hardly welcomed in the public event.
There is however, no doubt that the mass media is an indispensable institution in the progressive development and betterment of all affairs of mankind.
It is in this vein that there should be a profound effort in every developing democratic country to provide a conducive and an enabling environment for the press to function freely and fairly without fear or favour.
And as the presence of the Press is desired even at the war zone, the journalist must be given the maximum of security for his life indeed. Although in the battle field it is extremely difficult to be specifically mindful of anyone, like the Red Cross, every effort should be done to mark the journalist out distinctively for his or her identification in order to secure him or her from deliberate enemy attack.
Equally also the journalist should be recognized and taken full care of at all civil gatherings, be it political or otherwise so as to be assured of his or her safety to be able to do the job with an undivided mind.
Therefore, he must have the special privilege to move around and talk to anyone he wishes at the gathering.
In developing countries, the Press should be involved in all development projects as a genuine partner with state in order to engender a regular and sustained publicity concerning the planned and ongoing projects. It is only this way development could be facilitated and expanded rapidly to the remote areas who as a result would become inspired to undertake similar developments in the areas in developing countries and in particular Africa.
At the same time, both the print and electronic media would be able to educate the people about the benefits of the projects as well.
And therefore, in light of all these, the journalist has to be a broad-minded person and intelligent. He or she should have a good standard of education with a general knowledge of the world and in particular Africa and his or her country in particular.
It is indeed compelling for him or her to be imbued with the knowledge of his or her country to the tip of the finger. To be vast with the cultures of the people tribally and ethnically, the journalist must also have strong knowledge of the geography, the economy, social set-up and religions of the country.
Personally, he or she must set a standard of good conduct outside the professional ethics and code of conduct which governs the profession.
It must at this point be noted that journalism is a profession and not just a career. This is why there are schools and university faculties in journalism in everywhere in the world.
Nonetheless however, it must be ascertained that the quality of the journalist alone would not make the impact and yield desired results. The best journalist or reporter is therefore the one who reports the news clearly and interprets or translates it for a better understanding of the public without distorting it.
The developing countries or institutions wanting to engage the services of mass media - the electronic or the print - must ensure the availability of private independent media institutions with the freedom of their operation alongside the freedom and speech and expression in accordance with the ethics of the media. More important is safety and freedom of the journalists to operate and deliver without fear or favour.
And until such a state is attained and guaranteed, the paraphernalia of mass media such as radio station, the television, newspapers, magazines, and so on would become empty symbols in developing countries, thus rendering the benefits of modern mass media communication in expediting development in these countries useless indeed.