As I wrote about earlier, on my flight to Sarajevo, I became completely engrossed in this book written by the chief editor of a newspaper in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Throughout the book the author is determined to have a top-notch newspaper which reports with nothing but the highest standards of reporting. One of the challenges he faced was getting the government out of his newspaper.
Initially, the government at least partially subsidized the papers. Apparently this was common in the Balkans, especially under the communist rule. This is a weird idea for an American, because as far as I am aware, the papers in the U.S. have never been subsidized in anyway by the government.
At one point in the book the government is trying to control his paper and they threaten to take away their funding. Having hired someone to handle the newspaper like a profit-making business, he said - fine. We don't need your money and we certainly don't want your control.
But then the government passed an initiative that they could choose the paper's editors, and possibly the journalists. Insane, right? This idea was so foreign to me I found it almost jaw dropping, but this is how it had been done for decades in this region.
The author took the government to court over this issue and won.
I was so proud of him.
(Then, of course, I happened to sit next to the man on the airplane who was Bosnian and a war correspondent during the Bosnian war and personally knew the author and said he was a top-notch reporter.)
So throughout this trip, these ideas have been turning around in my head. As we were heading to our bike trip, this reporter with a recording device went up to Steve and said, "I work for the radio. Today is World Press Freedom Day. Do you think the press is free?"
Not being Croatian, Steve declined to answer, but I was intrigued. At the next stop light I went up to her to ask her - does she think the media in Croatia is free? Her answer was "No, of course not." and then she asked me if I thought the media was free. I said that I am from the U.S. and yes, I do. She said that in Croatia, of course if you say something against the government they would not do anything to you, but the media is not free. (She had her recording device on throughout the whole conversation.) That is about as far as our conversation got; I don't think we fully came to an understanding.
On our bike tour, I asked Duje about the state of the media in Croatia and he explained that the government appoints the editors and the journalists. That was the key missing fact in my conversation with the woman from the radio. No, the press is not free here.
You may be wondering why this is so significant. In part, it is critical for exposing government corruption. Here, the politicians get away with their money laundering and corruption because who is going to expose them when they grant the journalists their jobs? That is why the communist governments controlled the media. That is why I believe one of the many factors behind the corruption here is the lack of complete freedom of the press.
Several years ago I attended a lecture by a woman who was both a reporter and a lawyer. She gave one of the most intelligent and insightful talks I've ever heard about first amendment rights and the press. She pointed out that a great majority of the cases we study in U.S. constitutional law are litigated by the newspapers. The media were the ones who instigated and pushed for the Freedom of Information Act, which allows citizens to access government records which, prior to the act, were inaccessible to the public. The woman said that she will buy a print newspaper even if she is the last person on the earth to do so because of the importance and impact that the press has on our society.
When I got up this morning Curtis was reading an article about how Donald Trump being president may threaten the freedom of press in the U.S. (I don't think he was reading this article, but something similar). The article was particularly intriguing to me because of the above-mentioned thoughts. I am not trying to make an overtly political statement for or against Donald Trump, but what I am trying to say is that freedom of the press is extremely important - even if we don't like what they have to say. The press has a very long history of being very critical of the president. Obama said that being in the Whitehouse was like being on American Idol, except that everyone is Simon. That is the way it was with Abraham Lincoln. Nobody likes being criticized, but the freedom for the press and citizens to do so is vital for informing the public, exposing scandals, exposing corruption, etc. It is a part of our checks and balances.
(And wouldn't you know it, our cooking teacher today is a journalist.
When we get to Sarajevo we will be visiting my cousin Wayne. He is married to my cousin Susan who worked in the media for years. I am intrigued to hear any insight he might have.)
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