The Power of the Press

May 6, 2008 | 9:48 am

For those of you who don’t know me, or my family background, you may not know of our connection to Zimbabwe. I won’t go in to it here, except to say I have many family members still living there, trying their best to live a normal life while the country goes, literally, to hell all around them.

So, I read the papers and the stories about this Zimbabwe election mess always stick out to me. And in a week where the news stories are dominated by images of the Myanmar cyclone disaster (rightly so), I am struck by the relative *lack* of images coming out of Zimbabwe.

I think this is because Robert Mugabe rightly fears the press, and while the written word may carry less weight than photos and videos these days, the power of the newspaper and magazine writers and photographers to sway local, regional and global opinion one way or the other is immense.

There is also news that Andrew Mwenda, the TED Award winning journalist from Uganda, has been arrested recently in Kampala for publishing his independent newspaper which included unflattering remarks about President Museveni. I have heard, too, that President Kagame of Rwanda has limited the freedoms of the press in his country, opting for more social control than freedom (which may be necessary in the short term).

All of that to say, I am reminded, once again, of the power of images. When photographs come out that show what is really happening in places like Zimbabwe and Myanmar and Kenya, things are more likely to change. While others may feel differently about this, I believe the freedom of the press is one of the greatest things about this country.

And we should use our global influence (whatever is left) to encourage other nations to develop this belief in their own governments. It cannot be exported at the tip of a bayonet or cruise missile, but the U.S. and other countries could lead my example.

My apologies for the disjointed thoughts…just ranting and reflecting out loud here….