{"id":1594,"date":"2020-11-09T09:10:22","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T22:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scriptorum.imagicity.com\/2020\/11\/09\/can-we-stop-being-your-enemy-now\/"},"modified":"2020-11-09T09:10:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T22:10:22","slug":"can-we-stop-being-your-enemy-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/2020\/11\/09\/can-we-stop-being-your-enemy-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Can we stop being the enemy now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Does the Overton Window have shades? If it does, can we please draw them back over the bit where the media became the enemy?<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been holding this in for a long time, so don\u2019t be surprised if it sounds a little feisty. But you know what? It\u2019s the hardest thing in the world to sit in a press conference feeling like you\u2019re the only people in the room who care about right and wrong. The only ones who\u2019re thinking about others. The only ones who\u2019re being honest. The only ones who care remotely about the truth.<\/p>\n

The only ones who would rather lose everything than lie.<\/p>\n

For those of you who don\u2019t know my story, here\u2019s the skinny: I got turfed out of my job as the head of editorial for Vanuatu\u2019s only daily newspaper for \u2018administrative reasons\u2019. Those reasons are the subject of an ongoing judicial review, so I won\u2019t comment on them, save to say that I don\u2019t think they\u2019re really why I was denied the right to do my job.<\/p>\n

It galls me that I can\u2019t even speak in my own defence, but I\u2019ve been advised to avoid doing anything that might queer the legal pitch. So I\u2019ll just say I\u2019ve spent the last 13 months unemployed\u2014and effectively unemployable\u2014while the issue wends through the courts.<\/p>\n

I am, needless to say, a bit tired of being the enemy. I\u2019m tired of having to risk my family\u2019s future just to tell people what\u2019s what.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of China\u2019s petulant and bitter intolerance to any Hong Konger who so much as looks at them askance. I\u2019m tired of Donald Trump\u2019s calculated, flagrant disdain. I\u2019m tired of Murdoch\u2019s decades-long campaign to subvert trust in us, and to denigrate anyone who hold faith with the public good.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of us being arrested, persecuted, intimidated, imprisoned, and even assassinated.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of being the only one in the room who dares to ask the question, or says the thing that needs to be said. I\u2019m tired of having to remind people that we all have a right to do that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of the relieved looks when I do open my mouth. I\u2019m tired of people telling me in hushed tones how they support me, but there\u2019s too much at stake for them to actually say it aloud.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re right, and I\u2019m tired of that, too.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of correcting lie after lie after lie. I\u2019m tired of confronting liars. I\u2019m tired of the fact that it gets harder every day.<\/p>\n

I never want to worry if I\u2019ll ever see my family again. I\u2019m sick of being unemployed, and unemployable. I\u2019m sick of my right to seek the truth being curtailed by people who know I\u2019m right, and still persist. I\u2019m literally sick, living with depression.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sick of the brazenness, the shamelessness of it all. I\u2019m sick of the fact that even writing this bowdlerised screed is a dangerous act.<\/p>\n

So now that we\u2019ve reached this inflection point in history, can we please just stop being the enemy?<\/p>\n

Now that we\u2019ve reached the time for healing, could you start with us?<\/p>\n

All I\u2019m asking is that people stop trying to murder the truth. Stop pretending that the public good doesn\u2019t matter more than private interest.<\/p>\n

Stop pretending the media are somehow driving this soul-destroying descent into chaos.<\/p>\n

Reporters aren\u2019t special. We\u2019ve got exactly as many rights as you\u2014along with more responsibilities. But we\u2019re the first ones to fall. We cop the flak so you don\u2019t have to. We may be the first ones to be silenced, but we\u2019re not the last.<\/p>\n

If reporters aren\u2019t free to speak, to question and confront, then no one is.<\/p>\n

So can we stop being your enemy, please? Can we just be allowed to do our job? Can we maybe, I dunno, get a bit of encouragement, or at least the chance to make a buck at it?<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to do us any favours, really. You don\u2019t have to put kid gloves on. You don\u2019t even have to be nice.<\/p>\n

Just stop them fucking with us. Stop pretending we\u2019re the enemy. You know we\u2019re not. So maybe stop saying it.<\/p>\n

Can we do that now, please?<\/p>\n

Hugs,<\/p>\n

The Media.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The Village Explainer is a semi-regular newsletter containing analysis and insight focusing on under-reported aspects of Pacific societies, politics and economics.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does the Overton Window have shades? If it does, can we please draw them back over the bit where the media became the enemy? I\u2019ve been holding this in for a long time, so don\u2019t be surprised if it sounds a little feisty. But you know what? It\u2019s the hardest thing in the world to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/village-explainer.kabisan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}