{"id":8956,"date":"2017-09-29T15:16:03","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T11:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=8956"},"modified":"2017-09-29T15:16:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T11:16:03","slug":"politicians-press-and-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/politicians-press-and-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Politicians, Press and People"},"content":{"rendered":"

By what logic \u2018female dog\u2019 is an insult to all women in the country while \u2018a dog\u2019 is not an insult to all men?<\/em><\/p>\n

Negative solidarity springing from political correctness from all corners has been on display over the incident of a journalist who is perceived as the victim of a politician\u2019s verbal abuse. The press body almost unanimously raised an outcry and demanded apologies. Opposition opportunists claimed the MP\u2019s resignation, no more no less, and their women\u2019s wings flew noisily to the rescue of the innocent female journalist and had everyone believe that all women in the country have been insulted. At the, the PM reacted too quickly giving the matter undue importance. In the face of such media built-up uproar, the accused MP himself gave in to the hue and cry and apologized to the women in his household and Mauritian womenfolk of all ages. Journalists, opposition permanent electoral campaigners, female MPs and selected feminist banded together to give the public such a grotesque show of negative solidarity. This is not the first time that media-orchestrated hysteria boosted by partisan blogs gives the impression that their outrage reflects the sentiment of the whole country.<\/p>\n

As much as the political class, media people live in their own world and are imbibed with a sense of absurd self-importance and impunity. It is generally accepted that the code of civility and appropriate language should characterize verbal exchanges and writings among civilized people. Is there a reason why journalists feel exempted from the code when they address others including politicians? Or do they feel free to use any terms they want when they target some politicians? All the dictionary explanations and meanings to try and minimize the intention of the journalist fall flat. Not only one but two female journalists refer to the MP as \u2018a dog\u2019. One journalist called him \u2018aboyeur<\/em>\u2019, a barking dog, and the other one used the saying le<\/em> chien<\/em> aboie<\/em> la<\/em> caravane<\/em> passe<\/em>\u2019 to refer to the same MP.<\/p>\n

This is outright aggressive, insulting and vulgar language! In any country, politicians would have sued them for insults and abusive language. Instead of reprimanding the journalist, the editorialist defended her by proudly recalling using the same words in reference to the MP last year! And he repeated the word \u2018aboyer<\/em>\u2019 three times in an editorial! It is absolutely offensive to call someone a dog in any society. The two journalists must have been emboldened and inspired by their male colleague\u2019s vulgar language last year to feel safe enough to venture into such cowardly linguistic mimicry. This does not equate to emancipation, and does not honour women.<\/p>\n

To top it all, some voices try to minimize the intention of the journalist, saying that the Creole word \u2018zapper<\/em>\u2019 is commonly used by Mauritians. Really? Whenever it is used, it is considered vulgar by any sane person who has still has a sense of decency and respect in the use of language. In everyday intercourse, do we sit down and converse with people who call their wife, husband, neighbours or co-workers \u2018dog\u2019? Or dumping them in the category of animals and reduce their speech to futile gibberish?<\/p>\n

This is precisely how the journalists treated the MP. What makes them think that criticism levelled at politicians can be expressed in any terms of their choice without being accountable to anyone? The same sense of unaccountability common to some politicians. There must surely be other expressions in the French language to express disapproval than resort to \u2018le<\/em> chien<\/em> aboie<\/em>\u2026\u2019, a saying which 12 year-old girls and boys become familiar with in public schools and French lyc\u00e9es in Mauritius. If we go by their logic, Mauritians\u2019 common use of \u2018zapper<\/em>\u2019 justifies journalists joining in the chorus and exempts them from blame. A case of the public having the press that it deserves, a mirror of its own standards. But an MP cannot be warm-blooded as all Mauritians and the press. He is supposed to be stoic and send a garland of roses with a thank-you for the compliment note to the journalist who insulted him. The journalist, surely, will not like her name to be twisted into doggy M\u00e9dor.<\/p>\n

When the MP flew into a rage and called her \u2018a female dog\u2019, the mainstream press were so suffocating with outrage and fury that they did not even bother to inform the public about their colleague\u2019s writings which led to the MP\u2019s outburst. One has to find out the cause of all this hurly-burly from other sources. At least, the press should have published the content of the MP\u2019s speech and let the public judge its futility or not. It all boils down to personal animosity towards some MPs and verbal assaults instead of honest reporting and in-depth analysis to inform the public.<\/p>\n

By what logic \u2018female dog\u2019 is an insult to all women in the country while \u2018a dog\u2019 is not an insult to all men? The MP should have dragged the journalists to Court for abusive language, as politicians did in France to the overtly biased left-leaning press till the Socialist presidency in 1981. Public opinion largely supported erstwhile President Mitterrand for stating that his Prime Minister Pierre B\u00e9r\u00e9govoy committed suicide because of \u2018the dogs\u2019 in the press which hounded and harassed him.<\/p>\n

The intellectual make-up of a big chunk of journalists in Mauritius goes through French language, especially those hailing from Lyc\u00e9e Labourdonnais, and France remains a constant reference for them. To such a point of identification that some people ended up believing they are the big boss of the French language. Yet you never find lowly vulgar language in the French press despite ideological divide.<\/p>\n

Is the hype simply because of the identity of the journalist involved?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By what logic \u2018female dog\u2019 is an insult to all women in the country while \u2018a dog\u2019 is not an insult to all men?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":8957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,27],"tags":[5845,170,5843,5844],"class_list":["post-8956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-society","tag-media","tag-nita-chicooree-mercier","tag-pierre-beregovoy","tag-president-mitterrand"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Pierre-B%C3%A9r%C3%A9govoy-_-Mitterrand-1.jpg?fit=800%2C468&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-2ks","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}