Dictators and Freedom of the Press

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

That is how Abraham Lincoln summed up the special temptations and traps facing politicians. On Monday, we witnessed Lincoln’s words in action as Bashar al-Assad talked to a carefully chosen audience about his plans for Syria. He offered vague comments about the need for a national dialogue, reform, returning the military to their barracks and changes to the constitution.

If these ideas sound familiar, it is because we have heard them all before - from Tunisian President Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. They gave similar speeches as power slipped away from them during massive popular demonstrations against their regimes. The effect of their words was zero. Both were soon ousted and both are now on trial for excesses committed while they were in power.

Perhaps if al-Assad had bothered to read newspapers or watch independent TV, he would have understood the futility of repeating Ben Ali’s and Mubarak’s unsuccessful ploy.

But, that’s the problem, isn’t it?

Dictators don’t read what the outside world writes about them and they don’t watch independent TV. They rely, instead, on “advisors” and “ministers” to tell them exactly what they want to hear - that the world and their people love them and that they are doing the very best job possible.

In the United States, these hangers-on would be called “Yes men.” They are people who think that their own success depends on their fawning over the person on the next rung up on the power ladder.

But, in the US, because there are independent newspapers and TV, it is hard for politicians to be sheltered for long. The truth is written and spoken and its effect is powerful and swift. That is what dictatorships lack. And it is what makes democracies work.

Nelson Mandela, after apartheid ended and he became president of South Africa, was a strong supporter of freedom of the press, “Sometimes the press get it wrong, but it is better for the press to get something wrong, than not say anything at all,” he is quoted as saying.

This is a truth that those putting their lives on the line to bring more democratic governments to the Arab World should never forget. Control of information is the handmaiden of dictators because they know that without the information provided by a free press, democracy cannot exist.