INFORMATION
AS A PUBLIC GOOD AND THE QUEST FOR PRESS FREEDOM
Lead Paper
presented at the World Press Freedom Day Media Stakeholders’ Roundtable
Abuja, May 5,
2021.
By
Rev. Fr. George
EHUSANI, Executive Director, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation
___________________________________________________________________________
A: INTRODUCTION
1. The theme for the World Press Freedom Day, May 3, 2021
is “Information as a public good” per UNESCO, and the day was observed
in Nigeria as elsewhere according to tradition. It is a day to Promote the
Freedom of the Press, to Fight Against Oppressive or Tyrannical Governments
that seek to curtail this fundamental right, and also a day to honour our
fallen heroes – innocent journalists like Dele Giwa, Bagauda Kaltho and Chinedu
Offoaro who lost their lives at the hands of brutal dictators or “disappeared”
on account of simply discharging their duties! We pay tribute to the likes of
Tunde Thompson and others who spent years in jail, for simply doing their work
as journalists during the dark days of military dictatorship in Nigeria. We pay
tribute to functionaries of the Newswatch Magazine, Tell Magazine, the
Guardian, Tribune, Punch, Champion, Vanguard, and Daily Trust Newspaper among
other print media outfits that risked everything in the course of providing
space for champions and advocates of democracy and free speech, through those
years often describes as “years eaten by the locust.”
Yes,
I agree with Lanre Arogundade that “there cannot be information for public
good where journalists are in chains!” Yes, there cannot be information for
public good when governments or agencies of government routinely weaponize the
law, to punish individuals and group that express dissenting views. We cannot
have information for public good when journalists and media houses are targeted
mainly for uncovering uncomfortable truths, reporting failures of government or
exposing high level corruption.
What
is a public good? “Public Good,” also known as “the Common Good” is one
of the nine cardinal principles in the Catholic Social lexicon, along with: the
principle of Human Dignity and Inviolability, Participation, Distributive
Justice, Peace & Non-Violence, Subsidiarity, Preferential Option for the
Poor and the Vulnerable, Solidarity, and Human Stewardship over Natural
Creation. In this lexicon the common good is defined as “the sum total
of social conditions which allow people, either as individuals or as groups, to
reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily.”
In ordinary
political discourse Common or Public Good refers to those provisions and
facilities – whether material cultural or institutional – that a community
provides to all members in order to fulfil a relational obligation. They all
have to care for certain interests that they all have in common. Typical examples of the common good in a modern
liberal democracy include: the road system; public parks; police protection and
public safety; courts and the judicial system; public schools; museums and
cultural institutions; public transportation; civil liberties, such as the
freedom of speech (which includes the press freedom) and the freedom of association; the
system of property; clean air and clean water; and national defense. The term itself may refer either to
the interests that members have in common or to the facilities that serve
common interests. For example, people may say, “the new public library will
serve the common good” or “the public library is part of the common good”.
