Media Freedom: alive and not so well… is it?
FOURTH ESTATE, OR FIFTH COLUMN? In the good old days, it was said that journalists could be bought for a snifter of bottled sunshine. Today, it’s “sunshine stories” that too many scribes in the so-called free media milieu are bottling for public consumption. While far more murder mysteries than is healthy for a civil society vis-à-vis its editors and writers lie unsolved, a conspiracy of the willing is being hatched for the further enforced willing suspension of disbelief under administrations ostensibly championing the maxim that the pen is mightier than the spoken word. At liberty for a brace of years, and with the newfound independence of RTI behind it, the freedom of the wild ass still rampages through social media and tributaries of the mainstream – perhaps prompting the powers that be to consider legislation to gild the lily… so here’s fair warning: let’s gird our loins for the coming grind – for no government (good, bad, or ugly) has the best interests of unbound facts and unfettered commentary at heart, at bottom
– Pic by Shehan Gunasekara
Friday, 22 September 2017Today the only corpses in sight are those lining the bullpen – critics and social commentators who have fallen asleep at their desks, lulled by a democracy that offers peace but pre-empts justice. Oscar Wilde, had he been around, might have re-essayed his aphorism that “in those days, newspapers were edited by somebodies and read by everyone; today editorials are written by nobodies and read by no one”.
Media Freedom alive and not so well… is it.docx by Thavam on Scribd
