Being a public figure comes with fame, recognition and power.
Along the way, it is the paparazzi that helped to build that towering personality.
Their cameras and microphones follow you everywhere, augmenting your speeches, magnifying your personality and touting your success and achievements.
Eventually, capturing you in a larger-than-life mould in the eyes of the public.
In fact, the paparazzi derive power from making public figures powerful.
As one grows powerful, there is almost nothing that one can hide from them.
As a public figure, the only thing you can manage to hide is probably the skin around your groin.
They have what it takes to expose your shenanigans, mischiefs and faux pas.
At the back of their head, you are just a mere mortal, not the larger-than-life image they have built around your persona in the public eye.
The media or the paparazzi can make or unmake you.
Scandals
Sometimes it is amazing how they build a database of pictures of public figures.
They can match any scandal or misstep with an appropriate picture of the public figure concerned in a publication.
Any embarrassing story is accompanied by a portrait of the figure involved wearing a remorseful and embarrassing countenance to reinforce the bad conduct the story wants to portray to the public.
If you goof or make a reckless statement as a public figure, you are likely to see a mug shot of you in the newspapers.
The “big men” know this, so they are a bit jittery when they are at public functions and cameras are roving around.
They cannot afford to take the risk of being captured on camera dozing off
Public figures just do not understand why the media focuses so much on them, and does not leave them alone.
It is even more difficult for governments to tolerate such behaviour most of the time.
In Ghana’s history, we have had laws limiting the reportage of journalists in order to protect political office holders from defamation (libel and slander).
Nobody seems to have an issue protecting the free speech of people with whom they agree. The real challenge is protecting the free speech of others not liked.
James Oliver Wendell stated that the freedom of expression, protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, “is not a protection of free thought by those who agree with us, but freedom for the thought that we hate.”
Though criminal libel has been scrapped from our statute books, the challenge of protecting freedom of speech as dictated by our constitution still exists.
The challenge of protecting freedom of expression is daunting.
Though the First Amendment is designed to protect freedom to express all ideas, including those that may be unpopular, the rights and liberties therein are not absolute.
They are actually what the Supreme Court, the ultimate interpreter of the US Constitution, says they are.
Generally, throughout their history, the Supreme Court has attempted to balance the right of Americans to free expression against other needs of society.
The most stringent protection of freedom of expression would not protect a person from falsely shouting fire in a packed auditorium and creating panic.
An act of fraud may be carried out entirely through spoken words.
Accused fraudsters attempting to defend their action by standing on their right to free expression would not succeed.
Political power and the powers of the media are only meant to advance the public good, and not meant to be used to show others where power lies or to destroy.
The writer is with the Institute of Current Affairs and Diplomacy (ICAD).
E-mail: Lawmat2014@gmail.com
The article was first published on July 25, 2025 without the writers’s name. The writer is Lawrence Mantey..
