Freedom of the press and the martyrs of the word
Dr. Michel E. Abs
Secretary General of the Middle East Council of Churches
Today, the third of May, is the World Press Freedom Day as declared by the United Nations in 1993, which means that this year is the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of this declaration.
The United Nations considers, on its page dedicated to this occasion, that, during the three decades that have passed since the declaration in 1993, progress has been made "in the field of enabling a free press and freedom of expression in all parts of the world", especially that technological development has contributed and supported this trend towards freedoms. However, the United Nations considers that "media freedom, the safety of journalists and freedom of expression" are under "increasing attack, affecting the realization of other human rights".
On the same page, the United Nations underlines the social crises that afflict humanity and the injustice that is rampant in the world, and that this was accompanied by large waves of misinformation, which negatively affects democratic work.
Elsewhere on this specialized page, the United Nations stresses that journalism is a key for humanity to enjoy all other human rights.
Proceeding from this point, we need to mention that ten days have passed since the anniversary of the start of the Armenian massacres that began on April 24, just as we are three days away from Martyrs' Day, May 6, in Lebanon and the Levant, and in both cases, most of the victims were journalists and writers who were executed by the Ottoman Empire.
The sixth day of May is the Martyrs' Day in Lebanon, and it was later called the Journalism Martyrs' Day, just as it is the Martyrs' Day in the Levant, in Syria.
On that day in the year 1916, the ruler of the Levant at that time, who was called the Butcher of the Levant, executed 21 writers, journalists, and intellectuals from the Antiochian Levant, and had previously executed 10 people about a year ago.
It's always the Word!
The word disturbs, because it is light, and the light is not loved by the sons of darkness!
You see the people of the word, those with a free conscience and frank logic, confronting tyrants and oppressors with their chests, and this matter returns to them scourge!
The word is the key to awareness, and whoever says it has opened the paths of awareness to people, who read and listen.
The word is the means of preaching, the way to change minds, to spread awareness and to guide the public to the right path.
Tyrants tried to stifle the word repeatedly in history, but they did not succeed, because nothing hinders the rumbling torrent, and in the end the word triumphs.
Intellectuals and thinkers, who are usually writers and journalists, being producers of the word that awakens minds, pose the greatest danger to tyrants and the corrupt, so they are at the forefront of those killed by the corrupt tyrant.
From the time of Socrates drinking the poison, to Saro-Wiwa, the Nigerian writer, to those who are killed every day in my country as well as in the world because of the word, the path is one, its name is honor, honesty and awareness.
It is no coincidence that “in the beginning was the Word”!and when the Master told his disciples to “go and preach to all nations,” he was counting on the word!