The media possesses the inherent power to educate, inform and reconstruct society. The media can also be used as a “weapon of moral destruction” against society’s values.
There are many journalists and editors whose trade is always marked by diligence, brilliance and virtue, but some journalists’ work is influenced by “brown envelopes”.
Journalists who receive “brown envelopes” from politicians are a great threat to the media.
A toxic mixture of “brown envelopes” and mediocrity is paralysing the media.
Political analysts are intellectuals whose expert opinions are based on research and empiricism.
As analysts, we are not associated with any politician or political party. Our duty is to offer a research-driven analysis that adds value to the body of knowledge.
Political analysis is neither objective nor subjective.
It is mostly underpinned by a combination of social, historical and substantive factors. When analysing a political trend, we consider the contextual dynamics of that trend. All contemporary political realities are rooted in historical circumstances.
This complex issue is sometimes misunderstood by some journalists, editors and media managers.
There are media houses that prefer to work with analysts who support a specific media agenda.
As a result political analysts are branded as either anti-government or pro-government. It is this kind of branding that creates tensions between media houses and analysts.
Conservative media houses prefer analysts that are perceived as anti-government. Consequently, analysts that are believed to be pro-government are blacklisted.
Conservative media is hostile towards analysts who refuse to advance a certain media agenda.
Most analysts are pressurised by the media to provide analysis that is extremely anti-government.
On Thursday I was reliably informed that a certain media house has “blacklisted” me. That media house has been instructed by three well-known politicians to stop using me as an analyst. How could a media house be instructed by politicians to blacklist an analyst?
The media should guard against becoming entrapped in a web of political factionalism. A media house should not act as a “lobby group” of a particular political faction. That media house’s decision to blacklist me was driven by “ulterior factional motives”.
I will always refuse to become part of any unethical agenda or conspiratorial brigade. As an analyst, I will always refuse to be categorised as pro-government or anti-government.
I am an ultra-critical and constructive political analyst. It is my foremost duty to provide analysis that is balanced, critical, constructive and controversial.
Elvis Masoga
Political analyst
