Editorial Comment: Freedom comes with responsibility

Day was established by the UN General Assembly in December 1993 in the wake of a seminar on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press that was held in Windhoek, Namibia in 1991.
For us, in the public media, the commemorations came at a time six of our colleagues from Zimpapers and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, who had been placed on European Union sanctions for writing contrary to Anglo-Saxon interests, were removed from the sanctions list.
We will not applaud the EU for that gesture as the sanctions, which were an unwarranted attack on media freedom, should never have been imposed in the first place.
We call on the EU to urge their cousins across the Atlantic to follow suit and stop victimising journalists who do not toe the Western line.
This year’s theme of “New Voices: Media Freedom Helping To Transform Societies”, is providential for us in Zimbabwe as we strive to get our voices heard amidst the Western bedlam.
Be that as it may, we joined our colleagues worldwide in celebrating this day that is geared at promoting professionalism, work ethics, freedom of the Press and socially responsible journalism.
As the perceived fourth estate of the realm of governance, the best way we can work towards building mutual understanding is by strengthening a culture of freedom with responsibility.
This usually manifests in a media that is vibrant, independent, pluralistic, inclusive and fair, editorially free and beyond censorship and influence from inimical interests — political, commercial, or otherwise — only a free media will innately contribute to the dialogue and understanding across divides.
A responsible media defends the national interest and is an indispensable partner in nation building.
Nation building is an ongoing process for any country, and is an imperative for all countries that need to survive and gain prominence in the community of nations.
While nation building is guided and directed by the political leadership, the media have a prominent role to play by providing information, knowledge and promoting mutual understanding upon which informed democratic participation and good governance depend.
The media cannot do this if they are misguided or obsessed with selfish or partisan interests, because then, all they do is destroy nations.
World Press Freedom Day should thus remind us all that we determine our freedom or its derogation.
We can chose to work to be truly independent or chattel slaves of enterprising outsiders; we can work to ensure unfettered freedom by practising freedom with responsibility or be sensational and invite the requisite strictures.
Freedom is never absolute.