Issues around regulation, cross-checking of facts as well as verification of sources have come to haunt traditional media, brought about by social media.
It’s through social media that everyone is at free will to post, from hard core content to audio clips, video footage, among others.
It’s social media that has also heightened the ‘reality’ of fake news.
It is under this pretext that the 2022 World Press Freedom Day, observed on May 3, was observed under the theme: Journalism under digital siege.
Bear in mind that World Press Freedom Day acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom.
It is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.
Further, it’s a day of support for media platforms which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom.
Additionally, World Press Freedom Day is a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.
A good, factual story, I say.
It’s the digital siege, ironically, that has left tongues wagging following the sharing and posting of the Dubai night-life shenanigans.
As explained by those in the know as an ‘underground life’, a life that encompasses lifestyles unfamiliar to the ordinary person, where money is the order of the day to accomplish anything to the wealthy’s dark desires.
Some have confessed that such a life, which started from the blesser-blessee phenomenon, at times transcends into a fancy way of human trafficking.
Women end up going missing, others reported dead, issues of mutilation also thrown in.
It’s worrying that a fair number of women of African descent have reportedly been implicated in this slay queen phenomenon.
One questions: what would drive an individual to end up entangled in practices as reported from the Dubai night life?
Is it mere hunger for a good lifestyle at the expense of one’s dignity?
Is it the extreme symbolism of poverty of the stomach?
Interestingly, the 2022 Africa Day was commemorated with focus being on food security and nutrition.
It would thus dawn a dark day in Africa’s existence to witness her children straying from a meaningful life and rather being absorbed by the coded social media lifestyle.
Part of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Secretary General, Zurab Pololikashvili’s speech during one of this year’s Africa Day commemorations reads: “This is a chance for us to come together to recognise the richness of this diverse continent, its people and its destinations, while at the same time noting the challenges and opportunities we face.”
We can only pray and hope that Africa’s children find light to the right path, that they come together and positively tackle the ‘modern-day’ challenges that this continent faces, and not respond desperately to politics of the stomach that they end up give away their dignity.
By Tshepo Lincoln Tsheole
Editor: Digital and Online: Channel Africa
