Press Freedom, What Is It All About?

This topic may look odd here at nairaland, but it is an issue that has bothered my mind for some time now. Recently it was reported that the government of one African country raided a media house after it reported that the president of the country had a secret meeting with a former minister in the administration, which both the president and the former minister denied. People around the globe condemmed the raid. Again, just this week in Camoroun, a journalist was sent to prison for falsly reporting that a government minister was a homosexual. I am waiting for reactions from around the globe in that regard. My head ache is, doesn't press freedom recognise privacy as should have been observed in the former case, or it encourages deformation of charater as seen in the latter? What is this press freedom all about?

I attended an information forum organized by the Islamic Center of East Lansing, MI USA on Saturday March 18 2006 to educate the public about Islam and its Prophet  in the wake of the global unrest  of the past weeks.  One of the panelists and discussants was a Nigerian Christian, Dr. Folu Ogundimu, a journalism ethics professor with the Michigan State University, East Lansing.  His brief was to expatiate on press freedom and the role of a responsible press in diseminating information to the public. According to him, just because there is freedom of press does not give the press the right to publish information that are intentionally distorted, prejudiced, hatefu, inciteful, harmful or offensive to the sensibilities of the people or the commonwealth rights and feelings.    The freedom of the press is only limited to political speech, and even so,  a reporter can be censored if he/she compromises on matter that are sensitive to the security of a country.    He said there is an unwritten code of conduct that a reporter should follow - and that is, to use his rational judgement in the discharge of his responsibilities.  Failure to do show can result in unpleasant consequences, as the Cameroonian reporter had learnt, albeit too late, to his detriment.(hopefully)