The news fraternity is celebrating World Press Freedom Day this week and all I can think about is fake news and how there isn’t enough of it to go around.

What is the state of the media in Tanzania? Listen: We didn’t hold presidential candidate debates in the lead-up to the past two general elections and this wasn’t good for our media environment or our governance.

Tanzania Broadcast Corporation snagged the most popular and incisive television variety show of its time and now Ze Komedi is hobbled, unable to turn their exquisite cross-dressing ego-pricking side-eye to the topics and people that matter and this wasn’t good for our media environment. Or our governance.

What we need is some irreverence, among other things.

Convention demands that discussion of press freedom focus primarily on journalists and the constant challenges of the vocation, but this year the theme mentions... governance.

Arguably, the government and politicians need the refuge of a free and independent media just as badly if not more than the citizens do.

Somehow the locus of really good civic and political debate has moved to the media, with unexpected benefits. The saying goes that “Common sense is not so common,” but maybe it actually is.

All you have to do is listen to a couple of call-in shows and broadcast debates to realise that common sense abounds outside of the pressure cooker of The Establishment.

It does get mentioned from time to time that no matter how reasonable and progressive an individual is in private, something about working for the government or getting elected transforms people in public — rarely for the better.

Well, it’s not like the corporate culture of the government is obscure. Every document that can be turned into a state secret is stamped confidential, and those items that simply can’t be legally hidden are stored in such a manner as to make them as inaccessible as possible.

Maybe this kind of secrecy and paranoia would be more sustainable if the government were basking in the glow of citizens’ approval, but alas no.

Professional pride

I imagine that people who take pride in their professionalism resent constantly being suspected of personal corruption and incompetence just because of their place or employment or political affiliation. A few may even believe in the general precepts of public service, including transparency and honesty.

Considering the tendency for “secret” documents to get “found” by intrepid investigative journalists and online entities on a regular basis, whenever I hear government enforcers talk about the perils of an independent media, it brightens my day.

Because: Humour. I don’t know if any media freedom indices have developed a way to measure satire as a political indicator of socio-political wellbeing, but if not there’s something to do.

Not to belabour the point that North Korea is constantly surprising us with its ability to deliver deliciously colourful insanity, but such overachievement must be respected.

A recent news titbit had some North Korean diplomats pay a visit to a London barber to voice their displeasure because he had used a poster making fun of Kim Jong Un’s coiffure to lure in customers.

In other words, the inability of a leader or a government to take a joke is probably far more threatening to the democracy and stability of a country than an independent media could hope to be.

Throughout history the role of the fool, the jester, the griot, the messenger, the theatre troupe, the stand-up comedian has been held sacred for a reason.

Without them, people who are suffering from too much power and overwhelming success are prone to taking themselves too seriously. If left alone, they can then decline steadily into monster territory.

This makes it our civic duty to tease our leaders as frequently, as intelligently and as constructively as they need it for our continued mutual benefit.

The good news is that professionals are already working on it, there is a good-quality if underappreciated vein of excellent comedic talent running through our broadcast and online media. But it is a fledgling industry and it needs our support.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report, http://mikochenireport.blogspot.com. E-mail: [email protected]