Liberal democracy Essay

As a citizen of a democratic country, we depend too much in our newspapers, magazines, tabloids and all kinds of media for information, mainly because almost everything is shown in it, we don’t even know whether it is true or not, but because this is our flow of society we believe in it. But isn’t it invading our privacy? And our right to live in security? This is journalism the science of ruining or building lives. But primarily its purpose is to expose certain events, critical issues and mainly the lives of people, their private lives that they don’t want other people to know, the exaggerated tales and the gradual destruction of ones life. It is like showing your cards in a poker game without you knowing it, people taking advantage of it and using it against you. Look at the Valerie Plame scandal. After her career has been ruined by exposing her identity as a CIA agent, saying that she have leaked some information as an intelligence officer and making herself a public icon by showing herself in the front page of vanity fair other magazines and newspapers, professional journalists just took off the scene after the case have been dismissed instead of clearing their mistakes. Another example is the paparazzi, they make celebrity lives really difficult and even drive some of them to their deaths because of the stories that they fabricate, the pictures that they took, the private stories and pictures that shouldn’t be known by the public which creates an even more stress and pressure on them. Just like what happen to Princess Diana, who died because of a car accident in Paris, France due to the never ending chase of the paparazzi. In the war between US and Iraq, the progress of the US was certain, the US was reluctant to stop the attacks though the Iraq parliament appealed for a month long cease of attack, what do the media do?! They ignored all the press releases of Iraq and launched a â€Å"shock and Awe† campaign to expose and insult the Iraq parliament, making the situation worse. As what Lt. Col. Oliver North said that the media won’t make them (military troops) safe in the war that has been going on in Iraq, and he also said that it has become a weapon which attacks Iraq that supports the media’s claim that our democracy has attained its limits. Freedom in every little way has also its limitations, though we have equal rights and some believe that it’s the journalist right to do his job, I do also believe that freedom, our liberal rights meets its limits when we are actually hurting somebody because of our so called freedom of expression. Journalism, for the sake of its name creates not only destruction of lives but also of believes and relationship. Little by little, journalism is slowly ignoring our freedom of privacy, it cares for nothing except a good story, an interesting story that may destroy a life, it cares for no one, it exposes everything without even thinking the results of such act and mainly some of stories are exaggerated to give it a more interesting twist. Privacy is an experience that people should have the luxury of using, it is not a piece of data that we can tell everybody whenever we want to, we live in a democratic country, with democratic rights and equal opportunity, we must let everybody have their own piece of security as we do, who would want to live in a world where everything is exposed and there is nothing that you can keep to your self? I wouldn’t and I think no one would want that because if so, why would the government create liberal policy? Why do we want to have security? Journalism is really powerful, it can manipulate us in every way that it wants, it can even made us believe the things that they say; which may and may not be absolutely true, it also create a world of doubts, where we no longer know whether this piece of information is reliable or not, is it true or is it just a fraud? The word fair is not in its vocabulary and even respect. Exposing everything that creates interest to them and to the people, every thing will be exposed with or without consent, launching stories that shouldn’t be known by the public that may cause trouble not only to them but also to the innocent people around. Like when they publicize the American Iraqi war, when they follow people around etc. Isn’t this a clear violation of liberal rights? We must be skeptic of everything that we are told, because we are critical beings, we have our brain enlarged and neurons to use in such cases, we have our own set of opinion, let us become non-conformist and stop the inevitable exploitation of journalism in destroying our liberal rights. What’s the use of liberal democracy if we would allow this journalism to uncover every little piece of information about us? Journalism is like a disease seeping in every hole in our liberal rights, it is a cancer, a malignant one that we can’t seem to fight easily, but it is possible, I’m not saying that journalism only has disadvantages, we know that everything has two sides yet as we weigh their cons and pros we should know that it is slowly killing our democratic rights as a person and as citizen of this country. Let us prove that we value our freedom more than the interesting stories that this journalist made, let us have a world where there is security and freedom to have a private life that every one of us should deserve. Cure the disease that slowly deteriorates the country and make it a place where there will be no lives that are ruined due to exaggerated stories and expose that the media and journalists made. This is a free country, yet freedom in order to remain real should be handed down not only to those who can afford it but to everybody in this nation and in every nation around the world. Journalism should limit their scope and make our lives easier. Stop the exploitation and the lies, journalism must be honest and it should respect our liberal rights so as to avoid misunderstanding and destruction. Works cited: Connors, Michael. Howard’s Australia: The Democratic Paradox. 19 April 2006. August 21 2007. < http://www. newmatilda. com/home/articledetail. asp? ArticleID=1510> Leiby, Richard. Valerie Plame, the Spy Who Got Shoved Out Into the Cold . Saturday, October 29, 2005; Page C01. Aug. 20 2007: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102801172.html