http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/05/can-free-speech-be-counter-produ-20145362440177708.html
Opinion
Can free speech be counter-productive?
Professional journalism must take centre stage in our attempts to create
a better world.
Last updated: 03 May 2014 13:37
Jan Douwe Keulen
Jan Keulen is a Dutch journalist and media development consultant.
He taught journalism at Rijks Universiteit Groningen, and served as general
director of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom.
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A Tunisian journalist displays his press card during a rally to mark
World Press Freedom Day in Tunis [EPA]
Will the world really be a better place when freedom of expression is
guaranteed? This certainly is the conviction of a strong and vocal lobby of
more than 200 civil society groups advocating free speech, press freedom and
access to information. At stake is the wording of a new framework for global
development replacing the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's).
The 2015 deadline of "the most successful global anti poverty push in
history", as UN secretary general Ban-ki Moon called the MDG's, is approaching.
Though not all targets have yet been met, heated discussions behind the scenes
are already taking place to formulate a new global development agenda. The new
Sustainable Development Goals should result in a world "without poverty in all
its forms" in 2030: no violence, a healthy life for all, food security,
permanent education, gender equality, good governance and a number of other
lofty targets.
Although few would deny that "good governance" contributes to
development, peace and a better world, the question really is how to define it.
According to the high level panel, good governance is understood as "a
society's ability to guarantee the rule of law, free speech and open and
accountable government". The panel includes eminent leaders from global civil
society, private sector and governments and is chaired by Indonesian President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyonio, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and UK
Prime Minister David Cameron.
The negative effects of political propaganda, disinformation and
incitement to hatred and discrimination are well-documented. However,
professional journalism is not the same as free speech; it is a constrained
form of free speech, that takes into account principles of verification,
fairness, accuracy, balance, responsibility and public interest.
If good governance implies upholding free speech, access to governmental
information and independent media acting as a watchdog, the question remains
how to incorporate these issues into the development agenda. Some see
accountability as a cross-cutting theme. Others, like most free speech and
press freedom lobbyists, advocate for a separate global development goal. Free
media and quality journalism, they argue, play a crucial role in informing the
public, facilitating the debate and creating a culture of accountability.
Accurate, easy access data
There are also sound technical arguments to link development to a free
flow of information. Citizens and governments need accurate and
easily-accessible data and information to make better decisions and to check
that these decisions are effectively carried out. On the other hand, it is
important that governments share more of their information, online or
otherwise.
Access by all to vital data like statistics, budgets, monitoring,
evaluation and financial reports, the land registry etc, prevents corruption,
facilitates effectiveness and provides legitimacy to development processes. In
fact, the absence of reliable and updated data was identified as one of the
biggest obstacles for achieving the MDG's. If the political will is there,
modern technology makes it possible for the authorities to open up and make
open government data available for citizens, experts and international
organisations.
In a document on the UNESCO website, published on the occasion of World
Press Freedom Day 2014, it says that "a society that is guaranteed access to
public documents and public decision-making is able to bring conflicts of
interest to light and empower citizens with information about development
processes". UNESCO advocates therefore access to information laws that enable
citizens, including journalists, to easily and freely access information in the
public domain.
The push for greater openness, freedom, accountability and - as a logical
consequence - professional and credible journalism, is presented as a way to
help eradicate poverty and create a better world. But it can, in fact, also
lead to an ideological and political turning point.
Although the UN Security Council adopted already in 1949 the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, in many countries this document remains, at least
partly, a dead letter. Take the famous article 19 of the Declaration: Everyone
has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom
to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. A recently
published report by the US-based organisation Freedom House reports that in
2013 global press freedom fell to its lowest level in more than 10 years.
Especially in the Middle East, some European countries like Ukraine and
Russia and in East Africa, national security issues (and other excuses) were
used by governments to impede media freedom. According to Freedom House, in
2013 only 14 percent of the world's population enjoyed a free press - and those
14 percent live mainly in the industrialised world, not in developing countries
that are most in need of the new Sustainable Development Goals.
An Islamic answer
When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was introduced 65
years ago, with its potentially far reaching article about freedom of
expression and opinion, some criticised the Western bias of the document.
Islamic critics said the Human Rights Declaration was based on a secular world
view and Western philosophy. In 1980 the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in
Islam, issued by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, was generally seen as
an "Islamic answer" to the UDHR. In the Cairo Declaration's article 22, the
right of everyone to express his opinion freely is guaranteed, as long as it is
not "contrary to the principles of the Sharia".
Inside Story - Uncomfortable truths: how free is the press?
To include a specific goal in the SDG's 2015-2030 to ensure free
expression, pluralistic and independent media and governmental transparency,
would certainly lead to more discussion about the universality of this
objective. In many parts of the world, governments want to be in control of the
main media messages and are not ready to allow a free debate, a free flow of
information, let alone annoying watchdogs.
Sometimes media and journalists are tightly controlled by the government
precisely because they are supposed to play an "active and constructive role"
in the country's development. That is, the development as designed by the
government or the ruling party. This is the case of Ethiopia that adopted
"development journalism" as an official policy for its state media. The result
is that Ethiopia scores badly in all press freedom indexes, because this form
of journalism does not allow plurality, criticising the government and honest
feedback from the audience.
Access to governmental information, regulated by law, is extremely rare
in some parts of the world. In the Arab world only Jordan, Yemen, Morocco and
Tunisia have Freedom of Information legislation, but have not yet built a solid
practice of using it. In some Arab countries, governments set up information
portals on the web, but citizens - including journalists - do not have the
legal right to demand official information or to seriously question the bits
and pieces of information provided.
If the principle of making governments more accountable, empowering
citizens through free media and access to information is adopted by the United
Nations, this might provoke a new media revolution. In this revolution,
journalistic professionalism and ethics will play an important role. Free
speech as such can be enormously counter-productive: the negative effects of
political propaganda, disinformation and incitement to hatred and
discrimination are well-documented. However, professional journalism is not the
same as free speech; it is a constrained form of free speech, that takes into
account principles of verification, fairness, accuracy, balance, responsibility
and public interest. This kind of journalism may take the centre stage in the
attempts to create a better world.
Jan Keulen is a Dutch journalist and media development consultant. He
taught journalism at Rijks Universiteit Groningen, and served as general
director of the Doha Centre for Media Freedom.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not
necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
