Is the Media Crippled?

Working as a media personality can be a fulfilling job. The fame, the chance of being the first to grasp what is happening and relaying the same to the listeners as well as the opportunity to listen to what people have to say and their opinions about what should be done to take our country forward.

The job can as well be challenging. As much as people are privileged to air their opinions, they at times expect what they share to be construed as true and things to be shaped so that they favor what they wanted.

Also dealing with the bigwigs in the government can be stressful, especially in situations when the government demands the media to abide with their expectations. At times the media can be forced not to air some happenings which the government feels shouldn’t be known or barred from covering some events because of what might be termed as ‘security reasons’. To me, that’s discrimination.

The anonymous caller

One such happening resulted from a call which came through one day while hosting the morning show, dubbed as ‘The Breakfast Bus’ which I usually host. During the show, citizens are given a chance to call with the main topics of discussions being politics and governance.

The caller was concerned about a corruption incidence in his local area whereby a development project concerning a road which was to be tarmac ked and was correctly mapped to be done on one of the region from where he hails had been maliciously relocated to another area by a close politician who was very close to the executive. As much as the caller needed to sensitive about the corruption saga, he was also concerned about a mass demo to revoke the reallocation. I promised to give my opinion later.

I did my homework and discovered that it was true. That evening, I received another anonymous call which threatened my life if I were to discuss anything about the project over radio. I became worried and decided to record a statement with the police about the threat though I knew I was dealing with a powerful leader with the ability to do anything. Therefore, I had to tread carefully.

Making good of the threat

The following morning, I decided to express my opinion and talk about the subject though I had been warned against it. I went to length to explain all the details that I had about the saga.

After my show was over and my business done at the radio station, I went home. While driving, I got involved in a grisly road accident. A truck which came from nowhere happened to hit my saloon car and what happened later was news to me.

I woke up after 8 days in the ICU ward where I had been taken and by spinal cord had been damaged. It was shocking news to me when I heard that I could no longer get up on my feet.

However, some relieve came through when I heard that the discussion about the corruption saga had evoked a lot of fuss and countrywide condemnation. This had led to several deliberations and a decision had been reached to revert the project’s allocation back to where it was initially planned. At least, I had won a fight, though lost my mobility.