We all love to blog. But there are dangers looming. Many bloggers in the middle-east have been jailed for merely doing what we are doing. Last night I listened to a frightening BBC program where the hot topic of citizen journalism was under discussion. There is a whole section of the world, especially big media houses and journalists who believe we have no right to be disseminating information. They argue that bloggers are loose canons, accountable to no one and have facts which cannot be verified. These are very sound arguments, which we as bloggers must do well to avoid.
But we are the eye on the street level. We are the voice of the voiceless. We are paid by no one, and so we write without bias. We write what we genuinely believe to be true representations of facts.
But be warned, ensure whatever you write can be authenticated. Soon enough you will begin to see defamation cases against bloggers coming up. You must also know that you are liable, much in the same way as any newspaper.
Food for thought.
Doing 'La-pour' in the City of Accra
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When I was a curious, capering child street-sauntering at Achimota School,
there was an obliging, octogenarian gardener with no known name. People
called h...
8 years ago
Hei PP thanks. But blogging is a right they cannot take away. We write what we see and not what we think or feel unlike the big newsmen like CNN and BBC or the others. We blog on issues that affects directly or indirectly or that we are passionate about even if it does not affect us. But I think if we are truthful in our reportage and not use the platform for defamation, character assassination, project a personal and diabolical agenda, we wouldn't have any cause to complain. In any way, because we give news as it is on the ground sometimes too it would be difficult to prove it for assuming we saw something happened and in the next moment it isn't there, what is there to prove? But I ask, does absence of evidence mean absence of crime?
ReplyDeletePP, I would indulge you to read this book "Kwame Nkrumah: Visions and Tragedy" by David Rooney. It tells of Nkrumah (one of my heroes) but there are other side of it, which if it is true would make the whole Nkrumah personality difficult to swallow. I would review it, probably this weekend.
@ Nana Fredua, I would love to see the review of the book on you blog.
ReplyDelete@ PP thanks for the friendly advice, it good that great lawyers like you have our backs. Keep it up mehn.