Jamal Khashoggi wrote in the Washington Post “The Arab world
needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be
informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for
Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through
the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence
of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people
in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their
societies face.”
Jamal Khashoggi’s murder highlights
the threats to a global free press.
Journalist become targets around the world when they challenge power,
whether that power is political such as leaders of countries or economic as in
drug cartels. Between 2010 – 2018 twenty-four
Mexican journalists have been murdered some say by drug cartels. Two Reuters reporters in Myanmar, Wa Lone and
Kyaw Soe Oo, were arrested December 12, 2017 for political reasons. Khashoggi in the Washington Post piece where
he writes “What the Arab World Needs More is Freedom of Expression” reminds us that
freedom of expression is linked to freedom of the press and freedom of the
press is linked to independent thinking of ordinary people.
In a democracy ordinary people need to think independently
to be an informed voter to address the social issues of the country. Where do you get the ideas that form your opinions?
Issues of our country today and where you get
independent unbiased information is tied to freedom of the press. Is there such a place in today’s media gluttony? What newspapers, radio stations, news TV
broadcast, podcast, or YouTube, do you listen to has straight fact news. When I wrote for gay newspapers I always had
in mind what I wanted to say, I just needed to find someone who I could quote
who agreed with me and sometimes someone to quote with an opposite opinion to
make my point.
Today I am lost in a sea of information. Depending on where I go to find statistics I get
conflicting information. I have taken the progressive side on the social
cultural divide. I look at websites such as the Brennan Center for Justice, State
Initiative Exchange, and the South Poverty Law Center to get what I consider
accurate information. This furthers my
polarization on solutions to solve social problems and I am stuck; frustrated and
think I am right. The current tone of news casters such as Fox News and MSNBC
banter back and forth on who’s reality we should believe. What was it like for Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi
Arabia? Do the people struggle with a he
said the government said in the same way we struggle with accurate reporting in
a climate of accusations of fake news drawing lines of separation among us.
When we say freedom of the press, do we also mean freedom of
editorialized ads on TV? In this midterm
election season, the ads on TV hunt me, particularly the ones by unaccountable PACS. I first noticed them during Sessions’
nomination for Attorney General then during the Kavanaugh hearings, and now
they demonize the democratic party. Where does freedom of the press start and where
does it end. Where are the dependable
facts? I know that if two people go to
the same event they will have two different ideas of what happened, so how do
we get a consensus on what reality is or is it just in the eye of
beholder. Then there’s the question of
what facts we get from media that are nothing but propaganda. Both sides of the cultural divide wrestle
with this question, I know this because of what my republican friends have told
me about what they think about what is going in our politics today.
As we mourn the loss of Jamal Khashoggi a person who gave
his life to be able to stand up and say what he thinks, let’s remember we need
to do the same thing in our lives, in this way we take advantage of our constitutional
freedoms and not let those freedoms slip away in obscurity. Voting in the up coming midterm elections
express those freedoms more than any other action we could take. Get out and VOTE!
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