“Are you Free- or are you Dom?”…Freedom

By Rose Molefe

This title is taken from the famous Vodacom advertisement with a black poet asking the fireman; if they are “free- or dom”. However, this is not the only place freedom and liberation end, it has been fifteen years into democracy and freedom of speech has been emphasised amongst journalists more than anything.

It is deemed a big deal when journalists are deprived to write what they like especially because they are the voice of not only their newsroom agendas, but of the community as a whole. The late Steven Biko was the driving force behind the title “I write what I like”, which is the name of the JMS1 course for term four.

In his struggle he fought for freedom and mostly for freedom of speech, it is from him journalists feel the urge to; “write what they like”. This however, has certain limitations as things such as objectivity and subjectivity exist in the media world. Regardless of the freedom to write what one pleases, it is unacceptable for a journalist to bring out their opinion as though they are writing for themselves. This is where the line between mainstream and blogging is drawn; blogs tend to be more subjective as opposed to mainstream.

A blog titled Revolution Readers http://revolutionreaders.blogspot.com, represents the freedom that exists in writing (blog writing). They focus on timeless aspects in society, and feature interesting pieces of writing on both their personal lives and their surroundings.