The public has a right to know what its elected officials are up to. Period. That’s the point of Sunshine Week, which just ended yesterday, March 19 – to remind citizens of their right to information.
We often take that right for granted in the United States. After all, we have a (moderately) free press that does the hard work of digging out information about the workings of government, or at least that’s supposed to be a role of the press. Today, it seems like fewer rather than more news organizations are taking on battles for the public’s right to know.
So, it seems like a good time to praise journalists like Marina Ovsyannikova who dashed on the set of the evening newscast for Russian Channel One bearing a sign that declared, “Don’t believe the propaganda,” and shouting “Stop the war. No to war.”
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What guts that took in a state where protestors are quickly silenced – and worse – and where the invasion of Ukraine is referred to officially as “a special military operation.”
Ovsyannikova has been fined 30,000 rubles for her offense, the equivalent of $284.37. The mother of two young children, Ovsyannikova resigned her job at the television station, but she could still face prosecution for her act of defiance, an act that, under newly passed laws in Russia, could be punished by years in prison.
France offered her asylum, knowing what fate likely awaits her somewhere down the road when she is not quite so visible, but she has declined the offer. Saying she is a patriot, and that her son is even more so, she plans to remain in Russia. That is bravery personified in my opinion.
Then there is Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, a veteran cameraman for Fox News, and his colleague Oleksandra Kuvshynova, 24, a Ukrainian journalist who were killed earlier this week when the vehicle they were traveling in was fired on outside of Kyiv. Another journalist in that party was wounded and is still in a Ukrainian hospital.
The previous week, Brent Renaud, an American documentary maker and journalist, was killed while reporting from a Kyiv suburb. He was in Ukraine to work on a documentary about the global refugee crisis.
These are the people who make it possible for us to know what is happening in Ukraine. Imagine what Russia might dare if there was no international scrutiny – scrutiny made possible because someone was willing to risk his or her life to go into a war zone and tell us what’s happening there.
Oh, we’d know there was a war on – excuse me, “a special military operation” –– because of the diplomats and spies we and other countries have on the ground and through social media, but we wouldn’t have experienced war correspondents bringing us the human picture of the war. We wouldn’t have photographs like the one the New York Times ran on Friday of the theatre in Ukraine that had been used as a shelter before the Russians bombed it. Someone had written in huge letters on the grounds in front of the theatre the Russian word for “children.” We wouldn’t have that picture to show us just how ruthless the Russians are being in this . . . “special military operation.”
Press freedom is waning in the United States, – we rank No. 44 in the World Press Freedom Index for 2021, behind even Costa Rica – in part because the few news media outlets remaining are too timid. They’re hanging on by a shoestring, and they don’t want to rock the boat in such a way that will cost them subscribers or advertisers.
The thing to remember, though, is that as press freedom wanes, so will the other freedoms we claim as American citizens.
In January 1941, American President Franklin Roosevelt postulated that there are four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. These were America’s values as we geared up to help our European colleagues who were engaged in World War II. The president called on Americans to work hard to produce the armaments for our European friends, to accept higher taxes, to sacrifice to spread those values. By doing so, FDR said, Americans would be fighting for the universal freedoms for all people.
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Those are the same four freedoms at stake in the Ukraine/Russia “special military operation.” Those are the same four freedoms journalists work to protect every day, that some journalists are prepared to give their lives to uphold.
We don’t know how this conflict is going to end, but we know how it’s going, thanks to the journalists who tell us every day – with the 24-hour news cycle, tell us every few minutes. Our need to information to understand the roots and possible consequences of this conflict, that’s more than idle curiosity. Those are legitimate questions citizens are asking. And they’re questions that we really can trust journalists to answer.
Top 50 Countries for Press Freedom
Reporters Without Borders creates an index each year of press freedom around the world.
Rankings are based on abuses and violence against journalists and press outlets. Criteria considered include whether multiple opinions are represented in the press, media independence, likelihood of self-censorship, regulatory environment (i.e. laws regarding press functions), transparency of institutions and organizations that influence news production, infrastructure and abuses.
Here are the rankings for 2021. More details are available at:
https://rsf.org/en/ranking/2021
1. Norway 2. Finland 3. Sweden 4. Denmark 5. Costa Rica 6. Netherlands 7. Jamaica 8. New Zealand 9. Portugal 10. Switzerland 11. Belgium 12. Ireland 13. Germany 14. Canada 15. Estonia 16. Iceland 17. Austria 18. Uruguay 19. Suriname 20. Luxembourg 21. Samoa 22. Latvia 23. Liechtenstein 24. Nambia 25. Australia 26. Cyprus 27. Cabo Verde 28. Lithuania 29. Spain 30. Ghana 31. Trinidad and Tobago 32. South Africa 33. United Kingdom 34. France 35. Slovakia 36. Slovenia 37. Burkina Faso 38. Botswana 39. Andorra 40. Czech Republic 41. Italy 42. South Korea 43. Taiwan 44. United States 45. OECS 46. Tonga 47. Papua New Guinea 48. Romania 49. Senegal 50. Dominican Republic
Debbie Reddin van Tuyll is editor-in-chief of The Augusta Press. Reach her at debbie@theaugustapress.com
