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Kathmandu Friday June 15, 2001 Ashadh 01, 2058.
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Clipping the wings of press
freedom
By Vijaya Kumar Sigdel
I got an eerie feeling when I learned that
the government arbitrarily arrested Yubraj Ghimire, Kailash Sirohiya and Binod Raj Gyawali
of Kantipur Publications. I felt as if I was reliving my own arrest many years ago by the
police during the awful autocratic Panchayat system. As Robert F Kennedy once said:
"We know that if one man’s rights are denied, the rights of all are
endangered."
Since the revolution of 1990, I thought that
this kind of thing would be a distant memory of the past. After all, we are not living in
a totalitarian state anymore. Nepal has a democratic system; the government cannot simply
choose what the press can or cannot publish. Correspondingly, it cannot say: "I
don’t like this, therefore one cannot publish it. This is not good for the country. I
don’t like your publication so I am going to punish you for that." This is
reminiscent of the Panchayat system, it always came up with clever reasons to curtail the
freedom of the press and individual freedoms, always under the guise of the greater good -
they called it "national security."
I am appalled and concerned at the action
taken by the Koirala government. This move is unjustified, unconscionable and
undemocratic. It should also be illegal. Koirala has violated these people’s
fundamental rights. He has no legal or moral authority to tell the press what it can and
cannot publish. The only jurisdiction he has is to pass legislation regarding ethics and a
code of conduct. Koirala can also appeal for voluntary restraints. That is all. It is
pertinent to quote what one of the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas
Jefferson, once said: "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the
society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise
their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to
inform their discretion." I am impelled to repeat, "who decides what is good for
the country?"
A few bureaucrats and, maybe, some autocrats?
Are they smarter than the rest of us? Are they wiser than the people who put them there?
Should the role of the government be like a daddy or a big brother? These questions are as
old as the origin of democratic precepts and this is how Jefferson addressed them:
"The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object
should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a
government without press, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a
moment to prefer the later." He knew then what we know now: that without freedom of
speech we cannot protect all the other fundamental rights we so cherish.
The men in the government may sincerely
believe that they are protecting our system where in fact, they are actually threatening
it with their attempt to silence the press. The people who are capable of electing the
government can certainly decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong. And, in
order to make an intelligent choice, people are entitled to hear a variety of opinions,
ideas and philosophies, not only those that the government condones. Therefore, we need
more freedom not less. There will always be friction between the government and the press.
The government will always find something in the press that it dislikes or visa versa.
That is the nature of this relationship. Therefore, we should be concerned if there is
ever perfect harmony between the government and the press.
I frequently find things in the press I
don’t like, not only in the Nepalese media but everywhere, even in the US. Each time
there is something that the government does not like and we start giving them the right to
ban our freedom of speech, it erodes all of our fundamental rights. It will be a while
before democracy takes root in our hearts, minds and character. In the meantime, if we
allow the government to undertake such a draconian action against the press today, it will
be the end of our democracy tomorrow. Our society must learn to live with the ideas and
opinions it disagrees with the most. More than two thousand years ago, Plato went as far
as to say, "A life without criticism is not worth living." In fact, this is one
of the prerequisites of democracy.
The government does not and cannot hold a
monopoly on righteousness and truth. Nobody does, including the press. Yes, our press acts
very irresponsibly in more ways than one. But, we must remember that not all reporting is
bad or deceptive. Our press is as imperfect as the rest of our society is, no less and no
more.
Nevertheless, without the press, we really
would be in the dark. I think that the Nepalese press has come a long way since the
restoration of democracy. I am sure that if the government does not muzzle the press, it
will improve over time and learn to be more fair and responsible. Just like the people in
the government, the press must be accountable to the general public. Without the support
of the public the press will not endure. Let there be no illusion that no government will
make the press more responsible by imposing censorship. In a similar vein, the government
will never act responsibly without proper scrutiny by the media and the people. One of the
most meaningful ways people express their opinions is through the media.
Unfortunately, a significant part of the
media, our radio and television, are not free; they are highly controlled and censured.
They are not significantly different now from the Panchayat era. The only media that is
largely left free is the print media. Their free existence is paramount. Censorship is not
the way to go about it. Instead of solving the problem, it will stifle the progress of our
democracy. It will further weaken our effort to create a free, independent and unbiased
and, hopefully, a responsible media. To that end, our government could help to erect the
pillars of democracy by making Radio Nepal and NTV completely free. Democracy is fairly
new to us. Despite our initial optimism, the transition to democracy during the last ten
years has, at best, proved difficult. If the past is any indication, still more difficulty
lies ahead. According to Robert F Kennedy’s dictum, "Democracy is no easy form
of government.
Few nations have been able to sustain it. For
it requires that we take the chances of freedom; that the liberating play of reason be
brought to bear on events filled with passion; that dissent be allowed to make its appeal
for acceptance; that men chance error in their search for the truth." The government
would serve us better if it tried to silence Babu Ram Bhattarai’s guns, instead of
his pen. Moreover, the government has an overriding obligation to defend his right to free
speech. Ultimately, if we follow the path of censorship, there will be a whole lot of
people who might take up arms in Nepal. Still, what I have not understood is why our
government is transpired by this lunatic’s propaganda, giving such credence, so much
so, that it must be censored, putting our whole democratic system in question. Worldwide
condolences for the royal family’s sudden death are being followed by condemnations
for our government’s action against the journalists. What is the government so afraid
of, the facts or fiction? Babu Ram has gone on a killing spree since people refused to pay
any attention to what he was preaching. His hands are soaked in blood with his carnage of
so many lives.
Why would people listen to him now? Let him
speak his lungs out. If Kantipur had not published that article, it would have appeared
somewhere else. At any event, Yubraj did not even write it; he was simply a messenger. The
government cannot locate Babu Ram. Instead, it found journalists who were doing their jobs
and punished them. This is just ludicrous. History has shown that successful democracies
have not followed the direction of press censorship. For example, the US has never
suspended the fundamental rights and freedom of the press enshrined in the Constitution
even during the worst crisis of its history. And it has surpassed through myriad crises.
This is a lesson we can ill-afford to ignore.
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