Stop this sleaze; it is driving us mad

Journalists and other media practitioners have their specific place in the society. Without them there would not be balance and justice.

They can and do highlight events. By exposing attempts to cover up criminal activity, they help to restore law and order. The aim of the law is activated and faithfully watched in the formidable spotlight of the media.
Thus the term ‘watchdog of society’ fits it[media] like a ring.

Be that as it may, there is a dark side. Media professionals can and do abuse their freedom some of the time.

Media organizations can and are tempted to peddle lust under the guise of news and entertainment. The so-called “soft porn” [say sexually arousing dancing in music videos] is so rife nowadays that it is just a way of life, thanks to media outlets.

Our streets are littered with countless numbers of publications, newspapers and all, that regularly carry splashes of bare-chested or half-clad women leaving little, if anything, to the imagination.

The centre-folds and subsequent pages carry stories and pictures that are aimed at stirring sexual desire in their faithful readers.

Readers just pay a pittance to make sure that they[readers] keep coming for more of this deleterious, sickening filth!

The very instruments that are the watch dog of the society are the first ones to corrupt the minds of the people they invariably claim to protect.

To protect from what?
To protect from injustice of any kind and manner.
To protect, the young and old alike, from information that would poison the mind.

To allow only the right, clean information to be channeled to the multiple audience stake holders so they can up their minds about what to think.

This is the tall order of the media.

Journalism’s first loyalty is to citizens: always working for the good of the citizen; determined to stand on the roof tops and shout down any manner of moral vice – not trying to glorify the inglorious!

Pornography, in its raw and unexpurgated form, is being flaunted all around our towns courtesy of magazines, newspapers and the internet.

The outlets that release such stuff are increasing by the day. It leaves a question begging for an answer: is censorship an antediluvian, medieval idea that has no place in our present society? [Censorship in the sense of rooting out all manner of ignominy?].

I tend to think censorship is tricky business. In this age of freedom of expression, it is mind-racking to decide what should be blue-penciled and what should not.

The Late Pope John Paul’s Council for Social Communications summed it this way: “The presumption should always be in favour of freedom of expression, for when people follow their natural inclination to exchange ideas and declare their opinions, they are not merely making use of a right. They are performing a social duty.

“Freedom of expression is not an absolute norm. There are obvious instances – for example, libel and slander, messages that seek to foster hatred and conflict, obscenity and pornography, the morbid depiction of violence – where no right to communicate exists.”

The sure fire way to rid society of obscenity and pornography in our mainstream media outlets, that leave distorted minds in their wake, is for the government to use coercion in the censorship practice.

Pornography, in its every sense, makes horrid gaping holes in the right and correct perception of sex.

According to the National Coalition Against Pornography[NCAP], whose offices are in Nairobi, pornography affects all and sundry: men, women, children, marriages and society.
It corrupts and pollutes the invariable user such that impure thoughts constantly flood the mind.

Pornography depicts a woman’s value as solely to provide sexual gratification.

Early exposure to pornography may lead children to promiscuity, criminal sex or even bestiality.

Porn kills marriages. It creates unrealistic demands about sex frequency, specific styles/acts and a woman’s response to sex.

Porn endangers society. Statistics show that most rapists, child abusers and serial killers are insatiable porn consumers.

In these days of HIV/AIDS we cannot afford to continue basking in media ignominy that is otherwise known as entertainment. We have to forcefully extricate ourselves from this abyss. Surely, Africa, if we are to rise up against all odds, then we have to take matters of utter import seriously. Otherwise our children, marriages, youth and literally everything we are and have will forever be lost in this quick sand.

If the media lives up to what it should be, then the society represented will be a well-guarded one.

Someone once said: The press is the people’s university.
How very true. People of all walks glean snippets of knowledge and information from the press that go a long way in influencing them to form personal judgments and opinions.

Information that gives no hoot about moral credence breeds opinions and judgments of the same strain and nature. Journalists have a specific brief. Why should their special mandate be sacrificed on the altar of compromise and complacency?

Let’s take a stand on this and refuse to be blown about by every foreign wind that blows our way.
And that’s the bottom line.