Freedom of the Media in America

President of America

President Joe Biden said in his first speech on foreign policy that a free press is essential to the health of a democracy. Currently, democracy prevails all over the world, yet there are divisions between the rulers and the ruled that the people in power have to speak their mind. The people carry the chair on their shoulders and their duty is to listen quietly. As long as this code of conduct is observed in the society, law and order is maintained, but if someone asks a question, the scholars get angry. It is a sign of Raunt that the rulers find even those questions that are related to public interest bitter and the people do not even realize its bitterness. A ruler doesn't have to be Modi or Trump to be angry, but even those who seem firm and soft-spoken like Biden dig themselves. The American president cannot be satisfied with his own opinion because he has to negotiate with the journalists. This compulsion brought out many aspects of Donald Trump's personality and finally stripped the beautiful mask on Joe Biden's face.

The story is that in a press conference held in Qasr Abeyd, a representative of the conservative party's Hamnawa channel 'Fox News' asked the American president about inflation, 'Is the inflation in the country before the mid-term elections a political burden?' This is a very simple question with no apparent objection. However, Joe Biden's sensitive nature was so affected by this question that he forgot the microphone was on. He jokingly dodged a serious question about inflation, saying that 'inflation is a big asset', more inflation, then in a low voice he abused the journalist as a stupid puppy. This mockery was tolerated with great ease in the world's greatest democracy. When asked about it by journalist Peter Ducey, he said, "I couldn't hear what President Joe Biden said because of the noise." When asked about it, he kept silent and avoided it and spoke indifferently. So far no one has tried to check the truth about it. This is the state of America's independent media.

The White House had no qualms about admitting the matter, but included the conversation in its transcript released by the program. Thus, this scandalous event has now become a bright chapter in the official history of the United States. It is a sign of the influence of the West in the dear country that even its faults are seen as virtues by the people. If this case had happened in North Korea or any Muslim country, there would have been an uproar in the East and the West. An interesting incident regarding the freedom of the media in the United States took place about a year and a half ago (July 2020). It was common. At that time, Joe Biden dared to make some promises to Muslims during his campaign as a presidential candidate.

Within the United States of America, Muslims are not as numerous as in India to influence elections to any extent. The population of Muslims there is only 3.5 lakhs which is about 1.1% of the total population. Therefore, in general elections, no party considers Muslim voters to be accessible, but the case of Biden was somewhat different. When he paid attention to the Muslims, the Muslims sitting in Voice of America Urdu (Broadcasting) were happy and excitedly broadcast this news. V and A Urdu announced that the number of Muslim voters in some important states of the United States can play an important role in the upcoming elections. I have 1.5 million Muslim voters.

The news was accompanied by a video on VOA's Urdu website showing Joe Biden addressing Muslim voters at an event organized by the nonprofit Image Action. In the video, he promised to ' Day 1' will take down President Donald Trump's alleged anti-Muslim actions while urging Muslims to vote for him to defeat 'Islamophobia'. There is apparently nothing controversial about this statement, yet about a week later, some Trump supporters fired Michael Peck, the director general of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which also runs the video Voice of America. . Michael Peck could have ignored this objection, but to do so risked the displeasure of the former scholar. He therefore immediately ordered an inquiry to find out how and why the video was broadcast.

In an American society where freedom of expression is prided, the news was called an attempt to influence the American election, and the process of holding the staff responsible for the broadcast to account began. One of the reasons for concern with the above news was the appearance of former US President Donald Trump's two biggest rivals, Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashid Taleb of Michigan in the video. The US Agency for Global Media also removed the content shared on VOA's Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts Given and consideration of the action from the angle of violation of the federal law started. At that time, in the American media, the news of the investigation on the airing of this material came from 'some VOA Urdu employees' and Michael Peck admitted it directly and said that the people who will be found responsible after the investigation is completed. will be dealt with in a 'quick and fair way'. If this kind of bullying and threat is the freedom of journalism, then what is the name of journalistic slavery?

Since America is the world's greatest democracy, many people would think that it would be, if not number one, then at least in the top five in terms of media freedom, but it is not. The United States was ranked 45th out of 180 countries globally in 2020, according to a press freedom index. Former President Donald Trump also played an important role in this decline. As soon as he was elected, Donald Trump had described the media as 'corrupt'. He said of respectable newspapers like the New York Times that they "give false coverage of me with foul language." This continued throughout his tenure. In 2018, President Trump not only insulted media reports by calling them 'fake news', but verbally attacked journalists and called them 'enemies of the people'.

There was a lot of buzz on this comment and about three hundred American media organizations were angry and launched a freedom of press campaign against Trump. The Boston Globe announced a nationwide movement against President Trump's 'war on contempt'. The Boston Globe initially received positive responses from 100 media outlets, but later that number grew to 350. The movement included America's leading national newspapers to smaller ones. The Boston Globe wrote in its editorials that independent media has been an important American pillar for two hundred years. At that time, a survey came out according to which 65 percent of the public believed that the media should remain an important part of democracy, but the state of the people of the Republican Party was different. 51% of its voters believed that the media is not an important part of democracy but an enemy of the people.

The press freedom campaign was launched by the media due to increased pressure on American media as a result of Trump's statements. In confirmation of this, the private TV channel CNN produced a footage in which supporters of President Trump were seen hurling derogatory phrases at journalists covering the Florida rally. Nevertheless, 52 percent of Trump's supporters said that But there was no concern that journalists may be victims of violence as a result of President Trump's criticism. This is only natural since Donald Trump called MSNBC journalist Mika Brenzski "Crazy Mika" and his co-host Joe Scarborough "Crazy Joe" in a tweet. There was such a frenzy against the press in America that Qasr Abeez's spokeswoman said in support of her president's statement, "I think the American people have elected a man who is strong, smart and fighting, that is Donald." There is Trump. I don't think it is surprising because they fight fire with fire.'' Should.

Also read this:

Education system of Pakistan and problems faced