The suppression of media freedom stifles any other progress in society?

 Kaniyamparambil Issac Jobin

The media is a mirror of society, and the state of media freedom is a benchmark, actually the real image of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in one country. Because, the media are the ones who promote, monitor and warn about cases of human rights violations, and also often journalists themselves are victims of human rights violations. It is not without reason that freedom of expression, which also guarantees freedom of the media, is one of the oldest human rights protected by several international declarations and resolutions, but also by the highest legal act of our country – the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina .After World War II, tremendous efforts were made internationally, especially in Europe, to thwart the re-emergence of totalitarian regimes and dictatorships. Such action has resulted in numerous declarations, resolutions, pacts … as well as an extremely complicated and complex system of human rights protection Theoretically, human rights have been put on the pedestal of the priorities of Europe and the world, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose Constitution has incorporated 16 international documents guaranteeing human rights, which makes them supreme over all laws in our country. Unfortunately, not only in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, but also in the world, there is an obvious, and seemingly insurmountable, gap between the normative and the proclaimed on the one hand and practice, in the sense of applying the adopted norms, on the other hand.

Experienced human rights defenders emphasize that the fight for human rights is actually a fight not for our being better off, but for better off future generations.

The degree of respect for human rights is rightly regarded by many as a measure of civilizing processes in a society, although full implementation of human rights is considered as a utopia in far more socially and economically developed countries than ours.

But there is irrefutable evidence that respect for media freedom has a direct bearing on the orderliness of states. This was also pointed out by British Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt at a Global Press Freedom Conference in London in July. He cited that of the 10 “cleanest countries in the world, as ranked by Transparency International, seven are also in the top 10 of the World Media Freedom Index. Meanwhile, of the 10 most corrupt countries, four appear in the bottom 10 for media freedom.”The suppression of human rights, through the suppression of media freedom, stifles every other progress. In today’s world, we are witnessing a series of examples that prove that the suppression of media freedom gives a chance to undemocratic autocratic systems dominated by closed centres of power with little or no citizen influence. Such systems go with nepotism, corruption, and cover themselves with propaganda through controlled media.Hunt stressed that “the strongest safeguard against the dark side of power is accountability and scrutiny – and few institutions fulfil that role more effectively than a free media.”It is important to reject the generalization and observation of any profession looked at through the prism of bad experiences and to accept that unethicality and unprofessionalism should never justify attacks or threats.