Free Eskinder Nega

Everyone has A Right to expression unless they shout fire fire in a theatre full of people.

Eskinder warned that Ethiopia was staring into the abyss of the Arab Spring and for a nation that is systematic in its subjugation of human expression, they made a law to suit agitators for social change.

What in effect is their interpretation of this exception of the tenet of freedom of speech is that we should jail the manufacturers of fire extinguishers at theater door because they have written (expressed) fire fire.

We should also imprison the administration maintaining the theatre for setting up fire assembly points because they have the same effect as someone who shouts fire fire,  in a theater!

Now if the Ethiopian government deludes itself that it could stop the unraveling human history that is towards democracy and its tenets then it should look around for examples in History.

When the biggest state mechanism that is still operating on throttling civil voice, aka china took in Ai wei  wei, they made him in fact a voice of democracy. Tianamen square embodies this spirit to date and the effect of open revolutionary contempt for the Chinese government simmers to date.

What the Ethiopian government has successfully done is turn Eskinder Neta into the beacon of an African voice for the call of democracy and free speech.

It is a call that every blogger and journalist who has staked up his voice in the open space of the internet should fight for.

It’s a battle that if we lose to despots who are relishing on the precedent by Ethiopia to instigate similar bridle across the continent. Like in Kenya where CCK or whatever it is called wants to license and register bloggers and give them passes in order to converse in the internet.

This is a battle of epic proportions a battle that should allow Satta to be called a sweet potato if he is really one symbolically and behaves like one literally by locking Bwalya for 5 years.

As the Nation Of Africa we solemnly call on Ethiopia to Free Eskinder Nega

Joshua Kisemei: Let Eskinda Go: Let Democaracy Prevail 
Zakes Mda: Africans Must Speak Up for Journalist Jailed in Ethiopia
Call For Justice: Sign Petition Now!

Contemporary Threats: Media Freedom

Democratic rhetoric has unilaterally blamed absence of media freedom to government interference characteristic of African and oriental governments’ spewing vitriol that has determined discourse around media freedom.

However new threats to media freedom are in the offing as democracy spreads across the world.

I have come to like the BBC news channel in recent times due to its informative programming especially the coverage on Africa and the world as a whole. There was a time when we had our own Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. During the Moi regime and all the authoritarian use of the media to benefit myopic government ends, KBC lost all credibility as a media corporation and was more of a government mouthpiece akin to what we have as the government spokesman today.

Rightly it came under criticism and in an information age where there is a deluge of alternative media all and sundry migrated from KBC. It has since been plagued with losses, lagging behind and anecdotal affiliation to compromised media.

Why it did not transform into a respectable government funded media corporation like the BBC should be thought through if we believe in free press.

I say this because I believe the new threat to press freedom is over-commercialization, capital monopolies and political interest infringement.

When we opted away from government media we have since fallen to the corporate class who like the authoritarian governments driven by need to yoke people in propaganda, are driven by narrow minded self interest in profit. This has watered down journalism into sensational crowd pulling shenanigans mostly influenced by bigoted owner interests like the Ruppert Murdoch’s News of the world.  This is perhaps the biggest threat to journalism presently.

Plus with the rise of monopolies journalists are forced to play along editorial policies, some of which they do not even believe in. It closes out small entrants just like the autocratic bottlenecks used to.

To protect press freedom at this day and age we must look beyond the traditional threats into contemporary ones that threaten substance and importance of the fourth estate. We might have to go back to the traditional foe, the government corporation as a an alternative that is not driven by the myopia of profit but capable of churning out worthwhile journalism like the BBC and still leave the space open for alternative media.