Now that the dust has settled and my desk is slightly less cluttered, I finally have a moment to address the choir of sycophants who spent yesterday singing a chorus of “irresponsible journalism.” My “offense”? Reporting and offering my opinion on the unsettling events involving our President during his visit to Turkey.
To those characters calling for my head and questioning the ethics of my colleagues: I have one fundamental question for you. When did governance become a secret cult?
I find it fascinating, though entirely predictable, that the moment a journalist shines a light on the physical or operational vulnerabilities of a leader, the word “irresponsibility” is tossed around like a defensive shield. Let’s be clear: I am not in the business of public relations. I do not exist to be a decorative piece of the state’s apparatus or a cheerleader for the administration.
The true responsibility of a journalist is to report events surrounding our leaders without fear or favor. If a President stumbles, slumps, or exhibits inadequacies in a foreign land, it is not “gossip”, it is a matter of national security and public interest. We are the eyes and ears of the citizens who cannot travel to Turkey. To suggest we should remain silent is to suggest that the people have no right to know the state of the man steering the ship.
In mature democracies, the health and conduct of a leader are considered public property. We are not reinventing the wheel here. For example, in United States, from FDR’s polio to Joe Biden’s stumbles or Donald Trump’s medical records, the American press considers the President’s physical fitness a core beat.
On the other hand, when Boris Johnson was hospitalized with COVID-19, the British press provided minute-by-minute updates. There was no talk of “secrecy”; there was only a demand for transparency.
Also, in France & Germany, whether it is a lapse in judgment or a medical emergency, the European press treats the leader as a public servant, not a deity.
In these climes, the health status of a leader is in the public domain because the public pays for that health, and the public suffers if that leader is incapacitated. Why should our clime be any different?
Journalism was born out of a need for a “Watchdog.” It started because society realized that power, when left unchecked and unobserved, rots. The very essence of the Fourth Estate is to provide a check on the other three branches of government.
True journalism is often in a state of natural enmity with government. If the government is happy with everything I write, I am likely failing at my job. We are here to state the obvious, even when the obvious is uncomfortable. We report issues as they are, not as the “characters” in power wish them to be.
What I find most galling is the identity of my accusers. Many of these individuals, now tucked safely under the wing of the current regime, were once the loudest voices in the newsroom. I remember their bylines. I remember how they tore into previous administrations for far less.
Yet today, for parochial reasons and political patronage, they have traded their pens for pom-poms. They did worse to other regimes, but now that they are “inside,” they preach a gospel of restraint and “patriotism.” Let us call it what it is: hypocrisy.
I will not be bullied into silence by those who mistake loyalty to a person for loyalty to a nation. My loyalty remains with the truth. If the President’s health or actions in Turkey are noteworthy, they will be noted. If that makes me “irresponsible” in the eyes of the cult of secrecy, then I wear that badge with pride.
Godwin Anyebe is a Journalist and a Rights Activist.
