Covid-19 and the limits of journalism without fear or favour – Daily Monitor

By Emilly Comfort Maractho

Throughout this lockdown period, there was increased online discussion about the future of journalism after Covid-19. Many of them could cause a general loss of appetite.

To launch the 2020 Press Freedom Index report, Reporters Without Boarders (RSF) hosted a virtual conference on April 21, that they titled: Journalism in Crisis: A Decisive Decade.

The impressive list of five speakers included Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel economics prize laureate; Edward Snowden, president of Freedom of the Press Foundation; Christopher Deloire, secretary general of RSF; Rana Ayub, journalist and Global Opinion writer at the Washington Post; and Maria Ressa, a journalist and author.

Despite persistent prediction of doom for journalism as we know it, many young people are attracted to it. At Uganda Christian University alone, we grapple with high demand. At any one time, the Faculty of Journalism, Media and Communication has about 500 students pursuing journalism and communication at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Many other institutions are training a good number. This interest also demonstrates confidence of parents in the industry.

If there was ever a time to say there is enough army of journalists to do a great job reporting news and media to have quality content, it is now. If there was ever a time that we could lay claim to professionalism in journalism and an ethical media, it would be now. The famous fish mongers who paraded as men and women of the news are, if anything, long gone-giving way for a young, smart, ambitious, tech-savvy and professionally trained lot, or at least those gifted in it. Some of them fit the bill of super journalists working across platforms.

These trained journalists would be the perfect kind of troops for what the organisers of this years Press Freedom Day usually marked on May 3 called for, journalism without fear or favour. The theme was coined before Covid-19 became the nightmare that it is, which has forced the organisers to push the official celebration to later in October.

What Covid-19 has done is to truly test the limits of those who take journalism seriously, imagining that there could be journalism without fear or favour. Predictably, the public has rushed to blame the media for the disinformation that has assaulted us. No doubt, the media is not blameless. But what if the media is not the main problem? What if the problem is those who are the custodians of the truth and a deliberate attempt to twist that truth? What happens when facts are not enough?Covid-19 unleashed a series of actions by governments across the globe. Many of them needed questioning. But we all quickly became complicit, accepting that no one had the answers, or worse still, knew the truth. All we had to do was trust science to someday find a solution, in the meantime follow the rules, not question anything. Leaders waited on science to direct them, so did journalists.As I reflected on the concept of journalism without fear or favour, I wondered if the real crisis we are having is really a crisis of journalism or crisis communication. Maybe it is a crisis of governance and the inability of leaders to ask questions and use governmental structures and resources which journalism cannot even dream of to find answers, quickly. As we ask ourselves about the future of journalism and the crisis of communication, what continues to bother me is the failure or slow pace of investigation, not just from a journalistic point of view, but from science too. It is incredible how little is coming out of the great science to dispel in a systematic way questions around the virus and to decisively deal with them. For journalism without fear or favour to happen, we have to be in position to ask great questions in order to find the right answers. In fact, we have to exercise disbelief in the known truth or facts before us. If we only license certain groups to ask questions, we shall miss the different angles needed for us to shade light on the situation in a holistic way.We have to start reflecting on what it means to say the media is doing a great job because if doing a great job is being a vessel through which official information is passed or praising the powers that be, then indeed we have a journalism crisis. We also have to reflect on what it means to pursue journalism without fear or favour, especially when fear is the weapon of control in a crisis.

As the authors of the World Press Freedom Day have noted, we need to examine the ways that new forms of control of media threaten the role of journalism in providing the public with reliable facts and inclusive views.

As we hold the media accountable, we should also address ourselves to the limitations of journalism coming from business, politics, technology platforms and the public. A crisis of journalism, if ignored, becomes that of democracy.

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Covid-19 and the limits of journalism without fear or favour - Daily Monitor