Interview with Balthazar Rodrigue Nzomono-Balenda, Author of Freedom of Press

Balthazar Rodrigue Nzomono-Balenda is not only an author and a poet, but also a student, multimedia designer and translator. His previous books include The Depth of My Soul and The Struggle for Power and the Fight for Survival. Balthazar became interested in poetry by accident in 2003 when he wasn´t satisfied with the way things were going in his early studies and in the Danish society. His latest book is Freedom of Press: The Sitting Duck. You can visit Balthazar on the web at www.redroom.com/author/balthazar-rodrigue-nzomono-balenda.

We interviewed Balthazar to find out more about his interest in poetry and his newest book, Freedom of Press: The Sitting Duck.

Thank you for this interview, Balthazar. You are the author of three books – The Depth of My Soul, The Struggle of Power and the Fight for Survival and your newest, Freedom of Press: The Sitting Duck. Can you tell us which book is your favorite and why?

I will say, Freedom of Press: The Sitting Duck, because it has a better cover than my two first books and in this book and I don´t just write poetry about difficult situations, journalists face in connection with their reporting. I have written a conclusion about the enemies of the independent press, by talking about their insecurities because I want to make it easy for my readers to understand that those kinds of people find comfort in tyranny because they think it´s the only way to deal with their problems. In this book, I also compare journalists´ horrible situations with others who face similar problems like: authors, human rights activists, Green peace activists, other types of politicians etc. They face similar problems because there are elements that just can´t stand the idea of progress in a healthy society. Those elements are criminals, some intelligence agencies, extreme religious groups, extreme political parties from both the right and the left etc.

When you are not writing books, you are a multimedia designer. Can you tell us what a multimedia designer does?

A multimedia designer is involved in a combination of different forms of media. That includes a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video and interactivity content forms. In Education, multimedia is used to produce computer-based training courses (popularly called CBTs) and reference books like encyclopedia and almanacs. A CBT lets the user go through a series of presentations, text about a particular topic, and associated illustrations in various information formats. Edutainment is an informal term used to describe combining education with entertainment, especially multimedia entertainment.

You chose the situations journalists face to write your poetry. Why did you choose to do this?

It was because I believe freedom of press is one of the most important fundamental rights in our societies that are advanced countries. The other reason, why I chose this theme, it´s because journalism is also part of multimedia. Even it I am not interested in journalism, it does not mean that I have to stand bigotry because those who are hostile to the freedom of press are bigots in my eyes. In the EU article 6, everyone has the right to be free. In article 11, it says that we have a right to freedom of speech and freedom of information. I believe that journalists have the right to work everywhere and report freely because they want to tell us something behind what they have discovered. I chose to do it in poetry because I want express myself beyond the limits of logic about circumstances journalists can face, while they prepare themselves to their reporting. In every poetry, there is a story about different events.

In your books, you talk about human rights violations. Can you tell us more about this?

I talk about human rights violations from the unfair trade to dictatorships, war crimes, discriminations to genocides because they have a negative influence in our societies. Genocide is the following acts of crimes committed with intent to destroy in part a national, racial, tribal, political, ethnical or religious group. Such killings have a serious impact on mankind and they cause mental harm to members of the group. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Dictators and religious extremists use their power to suppress their own people because of their addiction to control. When a certain countries don´t have access to fair trade, it is also a violation of human rights because the only way our nations survive is by trading different commodities and other natural resources with other countries. Abusing children and using them to war for selfish motives destroys their mindsets because they are robbed of their lives. I can go on and on the lists are endless. Human rights violations are a reality in many places around the world. Sometimes we choose to put our interests above our fundamental rights, which have led to where we are today because we choose to compromise. I am not an idealistic person, I believe we leave in a real world, but that does not give us the right to ignore such violations.

You say you use poetry to criticize religion. What religion is that?

I criticize all religions, especially the three Monotheist religions because I believe religion is a threat to all civilization and too many liberties have been taken away because of religion because it inflates its way by ideas that have never stopped growing. Religious dogmas want to claim authority where it does not have any authority. The currency of religion is fear and control over other people´s lives. Religion is out of control now because we´ve been too diplomatic and sometimes, we compromise what we stand for out of the fear of causing offense to those who believe in deities. The UN wants to apply a law that would suppress our rights to criticize any religion, especially the Monotheists faiths. Does the UN understand that in some of those countries, where religion is mixed with politics, there are human rights violations from one way to the other, especially in countries where there are lots of lunatics who practice the religion of peace. They want enforce their unwanted values in the world and they want to claim themselves as victims, as they are the oppressors who discriminate against women and other minorities.

What disturbs you most about what you are seeing happening to the independent press?

The things that disturbs me about such a situation is when journalists are either tortured or killed for their works and it affect their families back home. The criminals and those who hire them walk with impunity after doing their dirty job and little justice has been served. The families of the victims are the ones who pay the price in the end.

Thank you for talking with us, Balthazar. We wish you much success with your new release, Freedom of Press: The Sitting Duck!