EDITOR'S NOTE: The
Boston Globe has put out the call to newspapers nationwide to publish independent opinion pieces today that counter the notion that journalists are “fake” and “enemies of the people.” My modest contribution to this initiative, below, has also been
published online by The Kansas City Star.
From Kashmir to Cameroon to Kansas City, journalists aren't 'enemies of the people'
Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari is not an enemy of the people. Neither are the
dozens of Cameroonian journalists I met in July, or American journalists like
Scott Simon or Laura Ziegler. Actually, these journalists and their colleagues
are the exact opposite of enemies: they are servants of the people.
As we know, community
service usually requires some type of sacrifice. For American journalists,
these sacrifices might include their peace of mind and having to endure the growing
controversy and instability that comes with their vocation. Every day, journalists
dodge insults and false accusations, and forge ahead with what must seem like a
Sisyphean task of trying to educate citizens about the lives of the voiceless
and marginalized in our society. For example,
NPR’s Scott Simon recently produced a
brilliant, emotional story about
how forced separation affected one Guatemalan migrant family. This heart
wrenching piece will no doubt be criticized as hopelessly sentimental and biased—the
product of a “snowflake.” One can respectfully disagree with Simon’s story
selection or the tone of his piece. However, I challenge anyone to listen to
this story and come away with the conclusion that Scott Simon is an enemy of
the people.
In Kansas City, it seems equally inconceivable that any sane
person could think that the dedicated journalists at the
Kansas City Star or
KCUR-FM,
for example, are enemies of the people. Who could believe that the
Star’s Mara Rose Williams’ exemplary
reporting about education (both K-12 and university), or her numerous tweets touting
the accomplishments of the area’s students (“Lincoln College Prep Poets Finish
in Top 10”; “Student Wins First Place in Photographic Technology”) position her
as anyone’s enemy? The same can be said of any of the fine reporters and
producers at
KCUR like Laura Ziegler,
whose recent i
nsightful story about Tonganoxie, Kansas exemplifies journalism’s
potential to serve local communities. Ziegler, Steve Kraske, Gina Kaufmann and
their colleagues certainly are not enemies of the people.
While these American journalists feel like they’re figuratively
under fire, journalists elsewhere in the world literally are under fire, justifiably
fearing arrest, injury, or even death for doing nothing more than performing
their duties. The “enemies of the people” rhetoric coming from the U.S.
provides a convenient justification for authoritarian governments to crack down
on journalists and journalism.
This is exactly what’s happening in Cameroon, where a
paranoid government regularly abuses journalists. During my month teaching
peace journalism in Cameroon, I heard dozens of stories of reporters who were
threatened, beaten, and jailed for merely doing their jobs. In fact, I witnessed
government intimidation first hand, as gendarmes swooped down on one of my
workshops and shut it down. Instead of being intimidated by this raid, the
Cameroonian journalists in my workshop became more defiant and committed to
doing their jobs and serving their communities. Cameroon’s journalists are not
anyone’s enemies.
 |
| Youngblood (l), and Bukhari (r, in white) at Rising Kashmir |
Like his Cameroonian brethren, Shujaat Bukhari, the editor
of the Rising Kashmir newspaper in
Indian-controlled Kashmir, did his best to serve his violence- plagued
community by producing journalism that rejected sectarianism and
sensationalism. I met Bukhari while speaking at his newspaper’s offices in
2016, and we discussed Rising Kashmir’s
necessary balancing act. In volatile Kashmir, favoring either the Indian
authorities or Kashmiri protesters or militants could result in the paper being
raided by authorities (as it was in 2016) or the paper’s staff being the target
of violence.
As with his colleagues in Cameroon and in the U.S., it was
hard for me to imagine how anyone could consider Bukhari an enemy of the
people. Yet, sadly, this is exactly what happened two months ago, when an
assassin’s bullet cut down Bukhari and two of his bodyguards in front of his
newspaper’s offices.
Shujaat Bukhari knew better than most that words matter, and
that inflammatory rhetoric like “enemies
of the people” imperils not only the practice of journalism but also
journalists themselves.
One can disagree respectfully with journalists and argue
that they’re biased. But spouting vitriol like “enemies of the people” ignores
the essential public service being
performed by journalists, and disrespects the memory of Shujaat Bukhari and his
1,312 colleagues who have been killed worldwide since 1992. (Committee to
Protect Journalists)
