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
___________________________________________________________________________
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”.
