Martin Luther King once said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
As globalisation theorists opine, we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Put simply, whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
At the time of putting pen to paper, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that at least 83 media workers have died since 7 October 2023.
Seventy-six of them were Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza; three Lebanese citizens were also killed, while four Israelis were killed by Hamas in the 7 October attacks.
Prior to Israel’s current genocidal war, CPJ reported that at least 20 journalists had been killed by the Israeli military in 22 years, without anyone ever being held to account.
These are not just statistics, but human beings who paid the ultimate price with their lives, in most cases for simply doing their work: informing, educating and entertaining.
It hits closer to home for journalists when one zeroes in on Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael al-Dahdouh, who lost his wife, seven-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son in an Israeli airstrike in October. As if this were not enough, he would lose another child to an Israeli airstrike in January. His 27-year-old son, al-Dahdouh, who was also a journalist at Al Jazeera, was killed while in a car returning from an assignment, along with another colleague, Mustafa Thuraya.
On ‘April Fools Day’ (1 April), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to “act immediately to stop” Al Jazeera’s operations in the country.
This was after the Israeli Knesset (parliament) approved a law that gives officials the power to shut down foreign news networks deemed a threat to national security.
To justify the move, Netanyahu said: “Al Jazeera harmed Israel’s security, actively participated in the 7 October massacre, and incited against Israeli soldiers.”
Judging from the situation, Reporters Without Borders warns that journalism is “being eradicated in the Gaza Strip.”
Worryingly, the CPJ has referred to the situation in Gaza as “an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families.”
This situation, coupled with the wanton disregard with which powerful nations have been allowed to do as they please, at a whim, leaves a barrage of freedoms, including that of the press, at the mercy of the powers that be.
This should never be the case.
As the world commemorates press freedom, we are once again reminded that we should never tire of our resolve to remind the world that a free, pluralistic and independent press is inseparable from and a prerequisite for a functioning democracy.
This message is even more important in a world becoming less democratic, wherein dictators masquerade as democrats.
Last year, UN Secretary General António Guterres said: “Freedom of the press is the foundation of democracy and justice. It gives all of us the facts we need to shape opinions and speak truth to power. But in every corner of the world, freedom of the press is under attack.”
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminds us that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
The importance of press freedom, therefore, cannot be overstated as it enables the exercise of other human rights, including participation in public affairs (such as the right to vote), particularly in an election year in Namibia’s context.
As such, an attack or threat on press freedom is simply a threat to the truth.
In Namibia, we find comfort in the government’s commitment to press freedom. It is, however, worth noting that by guaranteeing press freedom, the government and senior officials are doing no one a favour.
They are simply upholding the supreme law of the land, as we all should.
It is our fervent hope that regulations for the information commissioner’s office, which will implement the Access to Information Act, will receive the National Assembly’s endorsement to put into motion a key enabling institution for press freedom.
This institution, once operationalised, will compel officials to provide information to the media and the public alike in a bid to enhance transparency, accountability and good governance. The reasonable period proposed by the law to provide or decline to provide information is 21 days.
Part 2 of the Act deals with the appointment of the information commissioner, as well as the deputy information commissioner.
“In terms of subsection (3), the president must appoint an independent and impartial person as information commissioner to promote, monitor and protect the right of access to information in Namibia.”
It also addresses issues related to the qualifications for the appointments to the positions of commissioner and deputy information commissioner, as well as matters relating to their disqualification.
Individuals who are not Namibian citizens or who do not have permanent residence do not qualify for the positions.
“During his or her term of office, the information commissioner or deputy information commissioner may not engage in any political activity such as presiding at a political meeting, drawing up or publishing any writing, delivering a public speech, or making a public statement with the intention to promote or prejudice the interests of any political party,” reads another provision.
We hope that whoever is appointed to this coveted position is not merely wheelbarrowed into the position to serve ulterior interests and dance to the tune of his or her masters.
Namibia should continue to be a shining example of press freedom globally by upholding the ethos and values that enable this fundamental right.