Ndue Ukaj
Today is the day dedicated to freedom of the press – otherwise known as freedom of expression – and I am thinking of Milan Kundera's brilliant novel "Immortality", a chapter of which is dedicated precisely to journalism and the power it exerts over the moral and political life of our time.
Kundera, speaking of the glory that this profession had when writers like Hemingway and Orwell wrote about it, says that the transformation of this profession has caused a moral and intellectual mess, since our time has entrusted the journalist with a power that not even the aforementioned writers dared to dream of, and now we live under the clutches of the power of imagology.
Because, the power of the journalist - according to the writer - is not based on the right to ask a question, but on the right to demand an answer, and according to the writer, no one should possess this right, as long as people are valued as equal beings.
And the right to claim an answer, the text suggests, poses a problem, since the equality between the one who claims it and the one who must provide an answer is broken.
“The politician depends on the journalist. But who do journalists depend on? On those who pay them. And those who pay them are the advertising agencies, which buy space in newspapers or time in the media for their advertisements” – writes Kundera in the next chapter “Imagology.
These questions and dilemmas in a turbulent world like ours cause great surprise and shock.
The media rightly demands freedom, but it does not talk about the responsibilities it has to broadcast the truth and serve the public and common good, that is, to use freedom to broadcast the truth without any compromise with the thugs who trample on it with both feet.
Therefore, we can now rightly ask: does the media dare to tell the truth – or the opposite – as Kundera says: “reality today is a continent that is rarely visited”?
What exactly is media freedom and who defines it?
Is the media killing the intellectual world, aesthetics, sublime art, and high culture, and is it replacing it with a culture of the broad masses, which, as history has shown, easily multiplies mediocrity and turns it into a system and standard?
Furthermore, who sets the standards of this freedom, and should this freedom carry responsibility?
Today, we can say that the world does not suffer from a lack of information, on the contrary, the world suffers from an abundance of information, from unhealthy information and news that fills large spaces in the media, and from them is transmitted into human life and creates visual and virtual realities that do not coincide with real life, that is, the truth.
Are we allowed today to ask a question that naturally follows: who administered freedom of expression?
Editors, media owners, the agencies and businesses that pay them, the politicians who depend on journalists?
In a turbulent world in which inequality grows and oppression becomes the norm, the weight of these questions is felt every day, especially when it comes to talking about what is true and what is not, because the border between these two worlds seems increasingly invisible, and the media unfortunately makes a major contribution to the disappearance of this border.
The great Argentine writer, Jorge Luis Borges, speaking about the book and its importance in human life, in the writing "The Happiness of the Book", quotes Saint Anselm, who says: "Putting a book in the hands of an ignorant person is as dangerous as putting a sword in the hands of a child". So that's what was thought about the book at that time."
And today I dare to say: this is what I think about media freedom.
...
Freedom of expression is a sublime, therefore existential, value, and as such we must preserve, cultivate, and protect it by all means, but we must guard against the media becoming an instrument of politics, oligarchs, and those in power.
On this important day for freedom of expression, I would like to quote Albert Camus, this enlightening writer:
“Freedom without limits is the opposite of freedom. Only tyrants can exercise freedom without limits; and for example, Hitler was relatively a free man, the only one in his entire empire. But if we want to exercise true freedom, it cannot be exercised only in the interest of the individual who exercises it. Freedom has always had as its limit the freedom of others.”
...
Surely, in a healthy society, where freedom of expression is understood correctly and is not abused, false authorities who are confused and do not know what they want or what they are saying do not become social models.
There, terror is not sown and barren thoughts are not cultivated, as is common in Albanian society, in which the media often becomes a source of bad food for public opinion.
Moreover, in a social, cultural, and political environment where freedom of expression is properly understood, there are no all manner of plots and intrigues paraded through the media, and no twenty-four-hour attention is paid to mediocrity.
...
Our shattered society needs a spiritual awakening, a renewal, and to this end, a noble and responsible media that is guided by ethical and professional principles and not by perverted instincts and impulses can make an extraordinary contribution.
Our society is suffering due to the spread of the plague of language, intrigue, and deceit.
This stagnation has created fantastic terrain for false prophets, corrupt, cowardly, and mediocre leaders, and has shrunk the space for meaningful, cultural, noble, and humane values.
Our society – not only today – but every day must remember the great and valuable prayer of Faik Konica:
“Our Father in heaven, give us the strength to keep our mouths shut when we have nothing to say. Grant us the patience to ponder a matter before we write about it! Inspire us with a keen sense of justice that we may not only speak impartially, but also act so! Deliver us from the pitfalls of grammar, from the distortions of language, and from the errors of the press. So be it!”
This prayer has cathartic power and by taking it as a guiding model, we do the best service to our homeland, its present and future. So, the best service is when we speak and write about good and noble things and declare war on ugliness and all the forms in which it manifests itself in public life.
edition
t7 live
