Journalism has one core duty: to serve the public. Not a party. Not a politician. Not an ideology. The moment it forgets that, it stops being journalism and becomes something else — public relations with a press pass.
The shift is rarely announced. It creeps in.
First, language changes. Opponents are no longer “opposition leaders” but “enemies of progress.” Government failures are “challenges,” while the same failures under the other side are “crises.” Numbers that don’t fit the narrative are omitted. Stories that do fit are repeated until they feel like truth.
Second, priorities change. Investigations are dropped if they embarrass the wrong people. Scandals are amplified if they target the right ones. Press conferences are covered live, but protests are ignored. The news agenda stops being set by what citizens need to know, and starts being set by what power wants them to hear.
Third, trust erodes. When readers and viewers sense that a news outlet is speaking for a political camp, they stop listening — or worse, they only listen to outlets that speak for their own camp. The public square fractures into echo chambers. Facts become tribal. “Your media” vs “my media.” And in that noise, accountability dies.
This happens for different reasons. Sometimes it’s ownership. Media houses funded or controlled by political interests cannot bite the hand that feeds them. Sometimes it’s access. Journalists trade tough questions for leaks and interviews. Sometimes it’s fear — of losing advertising, licenses, or safety. And sometimes it’s conviction, when reporters begin to see themselves as soldiers in a political war rather than witnesses to it.
The consequences are real. Corruption goes unchecked because the press is busy covering speeches. Policy is reduced to slogans because analysis would require criticizing allies. Elections become branding exercises, not choices between ideas. Citizens are left uninformed, and democracy is left unguarded.
Independent journalism is not neutral about facts. It is committed — to accuracy, to verification, to giving the public what it needs to make decisions. That means publishing stories that anger your friends and defending truths that help your opponents. It means separating news from opinion, and both from propaganda.
A free press is expensive. It costs time, resources, and sometimes safety. But a press that serves politics is even more expensive. It costs a society its ability to see itself clearly.
When journalism becomes a servant of politics, the powerful no longer have to hide. They only have to make sure the cameras are pointed the other way.
Cosmas Abai (Broadcast Journalist)
09054522777 (cosmasblaise1997@gmail.com)