By Chris Ihidero
In just one day last week, almost 1000 (or over 2000, depending on who you believe) Egyptians lost their lives because those who swore to defend their democracy and secure their lives and properties changed their minds. Their deaths came from the hands of members of an institution that has for long been seen in Egypt as the last resort of the common man; if all else fail, Egyptian swore, the Army will stand firm on the side of the people. The Egyptian Army has always been seen as non-partisan and when the people had had enough of Hosni Mubarak’s reign of terror, the army stepped in and sorted him out. In came Morsi through the ballot boxes and when Morsi threatened the freedom Egyptians have always enjoyed as a secular people living in a secular state, the people went on the streets again, called on the army again and, again, the army sorted. And then the army became the power brokers and when your savior becomes your oppressor, to whom do you turn?
Egypt is a dream that became a nightmare. For long, Egypt distinguished itself from other countries in its region by retaining its secularity. Home to the Sphinxes and Pyramids; the beautiful River Nile flowing through it; dream holiday destination for many…Egypt was one of those places you go to find your soul. I have always wanted to go to Egypt, to see the pyramids and sphinxes; to spend a quiet moment in the bowels of the pyramid and meditate on its greatness and the minds that built such an amazing structure. As one brought up as a Christian, Egypt holds alluring images of Joseph, Pharaoh and the parting of the red sea. These images are blurred now and in their place riotous crowds and dead bodies flourish.
This past week, I have seen people getting shot on television. I watched in horror on CNN as a man, wearing a blue shirt, carried a wounded man, heading for safety and getting shot in his strides. I watched as another strode confidently towards an army tank, hands in the air…I heard the crack of the riffle and watched him fall. I saw a man fall from a bridge and land with a thud, on concrete floor. I watched as his friends picked up his mangled body, tried to make him walk and fail. All the while I kept asking myself silently; what in God’s name is happening here?! How did Egypt get here so quickly?
I do not subscribe to the usual homogenisation of western news media, as if they all work out of the same rulebook. While similarities in types of news focused on may be obvious, the tendency to put all of them in the same box and accuse them of propaganda is erroneous. However, watching the news out of Egypt these past few days on CNN, BBC and to a lesser extent SKY NEWS got me wondering if horror pornography was the order of the day. Why show so much of that carnage? Why show a man being shot, moments before, as the bullets hit and as he falls dead? Some of the images were even highlighted, so we all can see the horror in all their glory. Something in me can’t shake off the feeling that this is wrong somewhat. Yes, the images will be on YouTube anyway, but that’s a choice I can make, to see or not to see them. But when I watch news on a respected news channel, I am not convinced I want to see all that horror just so I can see the truth of the situation. I couldn’t also help but ask if we saw mangled bodies after the September 11 tragedies, or the school killings or the bomb blasts in London some years ago. If during a riot a British policeman shoots dead a British citizen on the streets of London, will the BBC show a clip of that killing, seconds before the shooting and as he lay dying seconds after?
It’s a crazy world in the media right now. Page views for online content and eyeballs for television is trumping journalistic ethics, wherever you turn. This will get worse as page views become more integral to the monetisation of online content and traditional media plays catch up in losing battle. Somewhere in the midst of all this, our humanity should remain sacrosanct and the ethics that have led journalism to the heights it has attained should not be lost in the race for relevance or material gain.
