On October 28th, 2010, in my JOUR289I class, we had 11 foreign journalists come visit the students. They were from a variety of countries across the Middle Eastern and Asia. Ranging from Saudi Arabia to Morocco, these 11 individuals showed us students what it meant to be journalists in countries where war zones are highly active, when freedom of speech is revoked and disregarded, and where women have to fight to just go to school and have a profession in journalism.
As the students asked various questions about privacy and security in these countries, regarding the internet, and social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, there was only one particular answer that really stuck out in my mind throughout the entire Q&A session. When asked about the privacy in Egypt particularly, and in some of the other countries as well, almost all of the 11 journalists said that they were not allowed to talk about their president, their governments, their politics, or any of the corruption that is bestowed in their beloved countries. After they all agreed to this statement, my mind was full of questions waiting to be answwered, however, I only chose to ask one question in particular. I asked them how do contain the right of freedom of speech when they are restricted in so many ways? What responsibility did they have as journalists to their people and the rest of society?
Translating for the journalist from Oman, the man said some courageous things to answer my question. From what I could understand he explained that the difference between Oman and America was that America was built on the foundations for freedom; since that was our goal from the beginning, our forefathers laid the foundation for us and that is why we are able to build up on it today. While in Oman, an authoritarian government was installed when the country rose, it prospered, but not making its people happy along the way. This is why there is so much opposition, so much fear in these middle eastern countries; dictatorship ensued all of the chaos in these countries that fear and opposition became the foundations instead of hope and freedom.
Seeing these 11 journalists from so many different countries reminded me of what freedom actually upholds and how it can make a difference in society and its people. Discussing with these individuals also made me realize that journalism is a unique field where it can bring you fame or destruction if you speak the truth.
