الصحافة الحرة لا تقدم وسيلة لمحاربة الطفيان .. كتاب معلم الصحافة والإنشاء

A free press does not provide a means to fight tyranny

There is no doubt that the tactful journalist who is loyal to his message does not lack a means by which he can combat tyranny and incite public feelings, until he achieves his goal, which is the honorable victor. And when it is impossible for him to express public opinion openly under the dictatorial regime, he does so in secret and hidden ways that are often more dangerous. The dictatorial government is one of its staunchest enemies and its strongest opponents.

When journalists were fed up with Napoleon's injustice, his persecution, and his imposition of censorship that prevented them from exposing him to any criticism, one of them, Raoul Rigoult, was able to overcome all of them with his cleverness and resourcefulness. He chose one of the beggars and gave him twenty francs in exchange for his signature on a decision submitted to the Ministry of the Interior requesting a license to publish a magazine called (Nature). He stayed in one of the large hotels and surrounded him with something befitting a newspaper owner. The request was accepted because it met the necessary conditions, and Rigoult wrote in the first issue: “My dear readers, we will present to you, starting from... We begin the issue of studies in natural history by talking about the French falcon (erroneously the king of birds). Then the article begins by saying: The falcon is a cowardly, savage ferret that lives on the meat of animals and other weak birds and goes to their nests to steal their eggs. They have often seen it attacking meek lambs to remove their wool to furnish its den with. He never abandons any harsh work to satisfy his never-ending hunger. After all this, we may consider those working in the natural sciences to be right in calling the falcon a king, because most kings who are like the falcon feed on the habit of their subjects.” Officials in the Ministry of the Interior do not notice that the main article in the issue is entirely a criticism and slander of Napoleon in particular, so they try to confiscate the magazine until it is published. It has leaked secretly to all people. It is natural after that that the second issue of the magazine will not be published, but rather another new magazine will appear under the name (Geography) or (Science for All) and such a predator that does not return blood from magazines that are all based on the same pattern of criticism and exposure. When the prosecution seeks to bring the editor-in-chief to trial on charges of misusing natural history, he has left the hotel, returned to begging clothes, and wandered face-first into the markets.

Some Arab newspapers used to criticize those of the Arab rulers whom they heard deviated from the path of integrity, by asking the phrase, “Is this true?” Then she narrates the news as she received it and asks for an answer to it in an open book so that the hand of the law does not reach her and punish her for slander. It is interesting to mention that when the French censorship ordered the deletion of everything written under the cartoons in the French magazine (Le Illustration) in the year 1873, the magazine resorted to a beautiful method that... It spared no further comment by continuing to publish cartoons and other drawings and announced a financial reward for anyone who understood the meaning of the drawing and what the newspaper wanted to write underneath it in terms of commentary, thus achieving what it wanted from the hearts of the readers. This is in addition to what some newspapers resorted to in terms of literary methods of a great nature, which they presented to people while carrying on the surface a prophecy, a dream, an innovative myth, a dialogue between two distinct people, or a story on the tongues of animals, all of which carried within them bitter criticism and sound guidance. The highest example of the latter style is what came from Ibn al-Muqaffa in the famous book Kalila and Dimna, in which he criticizes and rebukes in an innovative and beautiful manner. Let the newspapers in the oppressed Arab countries learn how to confront injustice in dark days and how to achieve their noble goals of holding accountable and directing the rulers and the ruled on any free and sound path.