I like Karyn Maughan. She is one of the finest journalists this country has produced in the last two decades.
And the harassment meted to her for merely doing her job is testament to the work she has consistently been doing over the years, carving her path to become one of the country’s most eminent legal journalists.
It was celebrated former American president Franklin D Roosevelt who said, “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
It should be a badge of honour for Maughan and many of her colleagues in the noble profession who are attacked daily for shedding light on wrongdoing and exposing the excesses of power by the powerful in society.
Public officials have long been known to grumble about perceived unfairness in news coverage.
But Jacob Zuma’s effort to send a reporter to jail for doing her job – an attempt to intimidate her, some argued – reflects a brazen trend of politicians using government power to punish or push back on journalists for articles they don’t like.
The actions by Zuma and his supporters on social media sends a chilling message to the profession; either you toe the line, or your lives will be made uncomfortable.
As the Washington Post’s header always reads: “Democracy Dies in Darkness”. This slogan, which followed the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president in 2017, recognises that a democracy cannot survive and thrive without an electorate informed by facts and truth by a free and independent press.
Why are journalists being harassed on social media at an alarming rate? The answer might very well lie with some “journalists” who have infiltrated the industry with alternative facts – a euphemism for lies.
These information peddlers sow mistrust in the media and allow rogue public officials to “think there is a political advantage” in attacking journalists directly.
As we have previously said in our editorial, the light needs to shine brighter for good journalist and dimmer for those who seek to subvert this noble profession for their own nefarious ends.
When the powerful in society try to control or intimidate the media for their own purposes, it is the first step toward a totalitarian or fascist state.
This democracy cannot die in darkness. With corruption a dominant feature of our society, being in the know keeps us free and empowers us to make better choices.
It was a determined group of journalists who shed the light on state capture and revealed the extent of the rot in state-owned enterprises. A free press is not a nice to have – it is critical to any self-respecting democracy.
We must look no further than the Russia and Ukraine conflict on how uncanny politicians can kill democracies in darkness.
The biggest threat to a dictator like Vladimir Putin is an informed populace. He has managed to a large extent to lull the public in believing his is a just war. The Kremlin strongman was already running a tight ship even before the outbreak of war in Ukraine. He
doubled down in March, when he enacted a law making sharing “false information” about the war punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Moscow also blocked access to Facebook and foreign news outlets.
Putin, like many of his ilk know that a free press is a danger to their excesses and a rooted need for unchecked power.
We too know the price journalists can pay for doing their jobs. Who can forget the slaying of trailblazing South African journalist Henry Nxumalo, who was murdered while investigating suspicious deaths at an abortion clinic in Sophiatown in the 1950s?
More recently, SABC journalist Suna Venter, one of the journalists that came to be known as the SABC 8‚ was found dead in her flat in Fairlands in 2017 at the tender age of 32. She is said to have succumbed to a condition caused by trauma and prolonged periods of unnatural stress.
Her and her colleagues’ only sin was to voice their concern about editorial policies, including the policy of refusing to air protest footage. The SABC 8 were harassed at every turn and received little public support because it would seem to some in our society, journalism is a crime. It is not. And the harassment of journalists cannot be the norm.
At some point, a chorus from the belly of the free press and people of good conscience should echo and pose a question to those who would tear down the fourth estate: wenzeni uKaryn? (what has Karyn done?).
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