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As protesters took to the streets to protest Donald Trump’s inauguration, a wave spread across the “civilised” world with many more expressing their contempt at the 45th president of the United States.
What these protesters failed to realise was that they were selective in their targets, simply because anything anti-Trump is popular nowadays.
Fortunately, in Cyprus, very few showed up to chant “not my president”, just as not so many gathered at the presidential palace in July 2011 to demand that Demetris Christofias resign over his administration’s involvement in the deadly Mari naval base blast.
Few have also protested against this or the previous government over the banking crisis and economic meltdown, apart from those who have a vested interest in recovering their bond investments.
And none of the members of the mainstream media have protested their slandering by opposition party officials calling the “pro government” press as being stooges of a solution that is being imposed on the people, against their will.
Both freedom of speech and press freedom should be safeguarded as the pillars of this society. However, despite Cyprus enjoying many more liberties than some other “western” democracies, these freedoms are abused on a daily basis, by those who twist the facts to serve their own petty interests.
If opposition party officials (including members of the present-day ruling party who used to be on the ‘other side’ years ago) are as much in favour of freedom of expression as they claim to be, then why do they not name the “biased media” so that Joe Public will know once and for all whom to believe – the deputies, who leap from one gaffe to the other, or the media, that nowadays includes more yellow press than ever before.
The public should realise that great sacrifices have been made for Cyprus to reach the state of democracy it has today, albeit with its faults. At the same time, freedom of expression goes both ways – just as every Tom, Dick and Yiannis is free to say whatever is at the top of their minds, it is a hypocrisy that they choose selective targets, usually linked to upcoming elections and an effort to scrape the barrel for votes.
One of the fundamental pillars of a democracy is for voters to make informed choices between election contenders.
In the U.S., despite the hollers of “fake news” and “biased media”, the majority of voters seem to have made an informed choice. People just have to live with it and get on with their lives.
