"Listen to the Voice of the People, for Many Times the Voice of the People Is the Voice of God!" South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu

In a democratic society, government is accountable to the people. The mass media is committed enough in bridging the gap between the government and the people by providing information of essence and relevance. Such information centers on foreign policy issues, economy, education, agriculture, constitution, and civil and human rights. Availability of public information affords the people an opportunity to better understand the government, its direction, role and impact on their daily lives. This commitment is based on ethics and morals, upon which the media is obliged to be honest, sincere, and critical. That is why western democracies are considered as “free world”. Few of these most evident reasons are: free elections, free enterprise system, which encourages competition and regulation of monopoly and perhaps the most significant, the freedom of the mass media. On the other hand, in authoritarian society, the public are denied or limited such access. The government attempts to close off information to the public. Most of the avenues of mass media, whereby the public gets information, are government-owned and censored.

Nowadays, in Eritrea, the government in power controls the mass media. Newspapers, radio and television stations are predominantly government owned or censored. As a result of this, an atmosphere of phobia and lack of interest is created among journalists and those individuals who want to express their views and concerns through this avenue. Being denied this inalienable right, the people are not sincere at all in expressing their views about how they really feel about an administration when asked

Notably, the attitude of the government towards the mass media vis-à-vis is not a healthy. The entire privately-owned press in Eritrea was banned by the government in September 2001 and journalists working in private-owned newspapers are currently imprisoned there.  Those journalists who opposed and criticized the government and specifically concerning its ideal and policies during the “Free Press era” were eliminated and jailed. The only voice heard is of media tightly controlled or monitored by the government. The only mass media in Eritrea this time are the Dmtsi Hafash and Hadas Eritrea, Eritrea Al Hadisa, Eritrea Profile which are all government-owned. The media watchdog group Reporters without Borders (RSF) highlighted Eritrea as a "dismal exception" in Africa, saying the "youngest country on the continent is also its largest prison for journalists". RSF said in its annual report released on World Press Freedom Day, the government of Eritrea maintains an iron fist over the media, forbidding the operations of all independent news organisations and booting out the last foreign correspondent in September 2004.

So, the public is lacking information about current issues, which is not biased, and flowing from different angles. The question that comes to mind is why are they unable to deal with the media? One would think that by encouraging such activities, these leaders would be able to get feedback and input which would enable them to become better leaders. And also that to their credit will be added the development of rapid progressive economic activities and a workable healthy political environment that will seek and promote the interest of “all of the people.”  Much of these problems originate from the policy of the government and leaders themselves. In spite of their awareness of what needs to be done, it appears they refuse or never seem to reach political maturity. Moreover, they don’t have the guts to accept defeats and criticism gracefully without personal hatred. The concept of the divine rule of the chief prevails in their minds, therefore their subjects are not allowed to voice their opinions or complain.  

The leaders are questing for power and wealth and excessively seek the divine rule of the chief concept. There is little hope for them to become true leaders of their people. They are not politically matured to accept defeat in criticisms from the public and opponents without personal vendetta if they allow free press to the public. There is no chance that the government-owned mass media can respond to its responsibility, as it ought to be. Nowadays, Eritrea is the only nation in this globe without free press. It is not without reason that the country is often called, "the biggest prison for journalists on the [African] continent." In 2004, for the third year running, Citizens of Public Justice (CPJ) named Eritrea as one of the world's 10 worst places to be a place for journalists.

The continued incarceration of and harassment of journalists in the country for no other reason than carrying out their legitimate duties should be halted. The persistent violation of freedom of expression, which denies the people an opportunity to participate in democratic debate towards solving the many problems facing the country, should also be stopped.

Eritrea is facing a multitude of challenges includes improving education, healthcare, HIV/Aids, agriculture, building centres for scientific and technological, provision of adequate housing, conflict resolution - peace and stability and so forth. These challenges cannot be met without the active participation of the citizens. However, active participation of citizens in shaping policy and decision making of their countries is impossible if the government continues to deny them the rights necessary to ensure such participation. These include the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and political participation, as well as media freedom to facilitate a free exchange of information, ideas and opinion.

Let us remember that the government is accountable to the people and the mass media serve as the means of communicating the message. Therefore, the voice of the people must be heard through the media because as the old saying maintains, it is the voice of God.

Dawit Maekele

EMDHR-South Africa