Freedom after expression
Mmegi Editor | Tuesday September 13, 2016 11:56
Naturally, divides have formed in the public debate, with many slamming the picture for offending Setswana culture and the institution of the Presidency, while others have defended the picture as a triumph of creativity and the freedom of expression, which will soon be celebrated, with others, on September 30.
As print media, our trade depends on the principles of freedom of expression, freedom of the Press and access to information, which we have long fought for in various fora, including courts and through the legislature.
Protected as we are by these constitutional structures, we nevertheless do not operate free reign. Instead, what we are able to publish and how we access that information is subject to a mesh of governing laws, rules, ethics and standards. Often, we kick against the goads and take risks. We are sued and suffer the inherent damage to our bottomline, sustainability and reputation.
Social media publishers – which everyone with access to a smartphone, social media network and followers essentially is – have no such encumbrances. Operating in a world of virtual anonymity, many users are free to defame, spread falsehoods, abuse, stalk or otherwise harm individuals and institutions while hiding behind online pseudo-identities. Online, such users create personas far removed from reality and, being citizens of a multi-cultural, borderless and cost-free online society, often operate at an ethical and legal realm separate from physical law-bound publishers in the ‘real world’.
Because there is a very real link between online activities and the real world, governments all over the world are trying to police social media ostensibly to fight crime, terrorists and in some places, to quash critics and enforce worldviews.
Botswana, for all the criticism daily channelled towards government online, is largely tolerant of social media content, as revealed by reports by social media networks on governments’ annual requests for user data. Largely, government will simply defend itself on social media.
Unlike its peers elsewhere, it does not go further to tracking down and punishing critical users, despite the recent passing of an Act enabling that.
There is a good faith arrangement of sorts in place where the state is largely hands-off fair comment on social media and in turn Batswana conduct themselves congruent to national values, particularly Botho, which accommodates self-expression, criticism and disagreement. Often some creative will push the boundary. And greater society, as seen in recent days, will push back.
With the same vigour with which we defend our freedom of expression, we also need to defend the timeless values such as Botho that in a world of flux, online and offline, remain our enduring identity as Batswana.
Today’s thought
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
- Soren Kierkegaard