We won�t cave in to intimidation

Mmegi Editor | Friday January 23, 2015 19:59

Back home, the situation is no different. The truth haters are at work. This time, they are not intimidating journalists with court action and phone call surveillance. They have added hacking our website to their stock in trade. For the last 10 days, hackers have been at it. First, they defaced our site, thus making it difficult for readers to access it. This week the hackers did not only deface the site. They took it down. This form of intimidation has meant that we have not been able to serve our online readers with news. Furthermore, we have lost 12 years of archives as a result of this cowardly attack. Efforts are however being made to recover lost information.

We have no doubt that this is a deliberate effort to intimidate the newspaper into submission by forces that hate the truth and scrutiny. It is clear that there are elements within our society that hate freedom of expression and of the press. To them, these freedoms should be severely limited. To them journalists, should be told what to write and what not to write. When journalists refuse to succumb to pressure, these intolerant people and organisations quickly resort to intimidation. They kill, they insult and hack websites, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Why us? Why is Mmegi the only target? It is strange that the hacking occurred at a time when we were running stories that did not portray people in power in good light. What a coincidence! Well, perhaps this a way of making sure that we don’t post some of these materials online? We wonder.

The truth haters should be informed that freedom of expression and freedom of the press are fundamental human rights and that news media are essential to developing a democratic society.  The press is the public’s eyes and ears. It is the duty of the media as the fourth estate to scout for information about activities of government, parastatals, and private sector with the sole aim of informing the public and holding power and the powerful to account. Mmegi has done this splendidly for more than 30 years. 

We remain defiant in the face of this intimidation. We won’t cave in to intimidation. Of course we are wounded but we are not about to succumb to cowardly acts of these persons or organisations. Our website will be back online.

Today’s thought

“News is what someone wants suppressed. Everything else is advertisng .” – Katharine Graham