The media observer magazine july september 2014 issue

THE MEDIA

bserver

July - September 2014

Training and the Profession

The Media Council of Kenya is an independent national institution established by the Media Council Act 2013 for purposes of setting of media standards and ensuring compliance with those standards as set out in Article 34(5) of the Constitution and for connected purposes.

Council’s Role, Mandate, Functions and Authority The Council draws its mandate and authority from the Media Council Act 2013. Its functions are to: Promote and protect the freedom and independence of the media; Prescribe standards of journalists, media practitioners and media enterprises; Ensure the protection of the rights and privileges of journalists in the performance of their duties; Promote and enhance ethical and professional standards amongst journalists and media enterprises; Advise the government or the relevant regulatory authority on matters relating to professional, education and the training of journalists and other media practitioners; Set standards, in consultation with the relevant training institutions, for professional education and training of journalists; Develop and regulate ethical and disciplinary standards for journalists, media practitioners and media enterprises; Accredit journalists and foreign journalists by certifying their competence, authority or credibility against official standards based on the quality and

2

training of journalists in Kenya including the maintaining of a register of journalists, media enterprises and such other related registers as it may deem fit and issuance of such document evidencing accreditation with the Council as the Council shall determine; Conduct an annual review of the performance and the general public opinion of the media, and publish the results in at least two daily newspapers of national circulation; Through the Cabinet Secretary, table before Parliament reports on its functions; Establish media standards and regulate and monitor compliance with the media standards; Facilitate resolution of disputes between the government and the media and between the public and the media and intra media; Compile and maintain a register of accredited journalists, foreign journalists, media enterprises and such other related registers as it may consider necessary; Subject to any other written law, consider and approve applications for accreditation by educational institutions that seek to offer courses in journalism; and Perform such other functions as may be assigned to it under any other written law.

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Contents

6

8

9

19

31

46

Editorial..................................................................................................3 Letters....................................................................................................5 Inside the Council....................................................................................6 Ethics and Training..................................................................................9 Mapping and Training Needs..................................................................13 Classroom into Newsroom ........................................................................15 Gender Equation......................................................................................21 Regulating Media Training ....................................................................25 What Ails Media Training.......................................................................27 Intrigues of Corruption in Media.............................................................29 Time to Bridge the Ethical Gaps..............................................................35 Overcoming the Setbacks.......................................................................39 Safety Protocol......................................................................................42 Social Media .........................................................................................46

The Media Observer July-September 2014

1

The Media Observer is published quarterly by the Media Council of Kenya with assistance from Ford Foundation. The views expressed in articles published in this publication are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of the Media Council of Kenya.

Media Council of Kenya P. O. Box 43132 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: (+254 20) 2737058, 2725032 Cell: +254 727 735252 Email: info@mediacouncil.or.ke Editorial Team Chief Executive Officer Dr Haron Mwangi Editorial Board Joe Kadhi-Chairman Dr Martha Mbugguss –Vice Chairperson Prof Levi Obonyo Otsieno Namwaya Jane Godia Wangethi Mwangi Consulting Editor Omondi Oloo Editorial Coordinators Victor Bwire Jerry Abuga Kevin Mabonga Contributors Abiud Onyach Amos Kibet Ben Sihanya Catherine Gicheru Dorothy Kweyu George Nyabuga Jane Godia Jerry Abuga Joe Kadhi John Gachie Kevin Mabonga Martha Mbugguss Muthoni King’ori Otsieno Namwaya Owino Opondo Peter Mwaura Tom Olang’ Victor Bwire Wilson Ugangu Photo Credits Moses Omusula Jerry Abuga Design and Layout Brand Associates 2

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Stepping up our Game

MCK Response to Media Training

Challenges

T

he proliferation of media outlets and multiplicity of ownership in the media and communications sector has been unprecedented in Kenya over the last one decade. However, professional development among journalists has not matched with media growth, audience demands and expectations and other related challenges of commercialization, competition and emerging national issues. Thus, the decision to focus on training in this issue of the Media Observer.

Section 6(1)(h) of the Media Council Act 2013 requires that the Council accredits journalists and foreign journalists by certifying their competence, authority or credibility against official standards based on the quality and training of journalists in Kenya including the maintaining of a register of journalists, media enterprises and such other related registers as it may deem fi t and issuance of such document evidencing accreditation with the Council as the Council shall determine- This is meant to ensure that the Council enforces professionalism and regulates the conduct and discipline of journalists in the country.

Training challenges in the media industry in Kenya are many, ranging from proliferation of middle-level colleges (some of which have credibility issues), employment of unqualified instructors in some colleges, the widening disconnect between what is taught in the classroom and what the industry needs and corruption within the media to blatant disregard to the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya.

The Council has already developed a standardised curriculum for mid- level colleges offering journalism in Kenya, in partnership with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and TIVET, and has held discussions with the KNEC and the Commission for Higher Education on areas of mutual interest, aimed at enforcing the law.

In addition, the MCK has set up a college Inspections and Accreditation team, developed inspection guidelines and ran a call for all colleges offering journalism training as part of the process to streamline training. In future, renewal of accreditation for journalists will be based on the number of short upgrading courses one will have done in the previous year.

The need to ensure standards in the media through media monitoring, setting standards and ensuring quality of training is now a Constitutional requirement on the part of the Media Council of Kenya. The Media council Act 2013 section 6(1) (f), requires the Media Council of Kenya to set standards in consultation with the relevant training institutions, for professional education and training of journalists in Kenya. Section 6(1) (n) provides that the Council subject to any other written law consider and approve applications for accreditation by educational institutions that seek to offer courses in journalism.

The Media Observer July-September 2014

I am glad that some media houses have taken it upon themselves to introduce rigorous in-house trainings for their editorial staff. But these notwithstanding, I am optimistic that with reforms and regulatory measures we are instituting, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Our vision at the Media Council of Kenya is to reclaim journalism’s position of a being a noble profession, especially at this time when the trade and audiences are changing radically.

Dr Haron Mwangi, Chief Executive Officer & Secretary to the Council Media Council of Kenya

3

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

our Readers

From

Media, security agencies must co-exist

I was glad to read the previous edition of the Media Observer that focused on security. Though the magazine pushes the mandate and aspiration of the media fraternity, it gave a positive coverage of the expected relationship between the dichotomy of National Security on one hand and freedom of speech on the other. I say this with foreknowledge that the media and national security practitioners have had a frosty relationship over time due to traditional irresponsible coverage of security issues. This has been compounded equally by security agencies’ failure to appreciate the role of the media as a “critical player” in the discourse.

As much as the magazine was candid in the media’s self-evaluation and critique, it appreciated national security as the “critical priority for any government the world over”. It is this acknowledgement that should interface our diverse aspirations and enable us to pull in the same direction towards a peaceful and more secure nation. Conversely, security and policing practitioners need to appreciate that media is intended to complement their effort towards national security, and that 4

analysed how the Kenyan media covers security issues and the related impact on professionalism quite comprehensively. We at the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation thank you for the good work in observing the media.

Waithaka Waihenya, MD, KBC

the media’s shortcomings arise out of “lack of expertise” and other realities.

State actors have a responsibility of “educating” and “mainstreaming” the media into the security thicket.

This is a balance we must strive to foster a cohesive and secure nation. As such, media should be engaged more as a matter of right and not privilege based on the principles of “right to information” on one hand and “need to know” on the other. Hence this is a good and informative magazine with a very relevant and rich discourse for all those professing the ideals of national security.

Ndegwa Muhoro, Director of Criminal Investigations

Keep up ‘observing’ the media We were glad to receive a copy of the April-June 2014 edition of the Media Observer Magazine. It

Thumbs up for informative publication I received with gratitude your April-June 2014 edition of the Media Observer Magazine. In it, you satisfactorily covered many topics and dealt exhaustively with insecurity.

I wish to highlight a few points that have captured my attention.

You were categorical that media freedom must be accompanied by responsibility. I was glad to read the Media Council of Kenya has noted and cautioned that if radio talk shows are not streamlined, they

The Media Observer July-September 2014

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR may tend to be abused by some sections of the media.

It has been realised that there is need to formulate and implement a code of regulation to guide radio talk shows.

Another point I noted was that it is important to promote a free and safe environment for journalists with a view to creating an informed citizenry capable of strengthening peace, democracy and development in Kenya and that journalists should understand that national security should be promoted and guaranteed in accordance with the principles that demand it to be subject to the authority of the Constitution.

Kudos for keeping up media freedom spirit Thank you for the Media Observer Magazine covering the period April to June 2014.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank you for keeping up the spirit of the freedom of media under the new constitution. I wish you well in your future endeavours.

Mutula Kilonzo Junior, Senator

They need to be aware of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2012 and the National Intelligence Service Act 2012. Stories that expose National Security are an irritation to the Government.

This is so because unbridled media coverage, particularly of terrorist attacks give perpetrators the attention they seek and a platform to prosecute their propaganda, as well as information they can use to sustain the attacks.

I agree with the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher when she said media publicity is the oxygen of terrorism-it aids in their work and undermines national peace and stability.

I noted with concern that the observation that armed conflict traumatises women and publishing photos of dead persons only adds to this trauma should be taken seriously by journalists. They need to be sensitive to women and children and indeed to all Kenyans at large. Psychologist Florence Mueni on commenting on Mpeketoni pictures said “it is traumatic not just for the affected families, but even the ones who are not.�

So, all in all, the magazine was very informative and has covered important topics. Keep up the good work and let us keep working on a mutual rewarding relationship.

Justin Muturi, National Assembly Speaker

The Media Observer July-September 2014

5

Dr Matiang’i lauds Council’s commitment to professionalism Information Communication and Technology Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i at the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) offices in Upper Hill.

By Kevin Mabonga

I

nformation Communication and Technology Cabinet Secretary Dr Fred Matiang’i paid a courtesy call on the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) at its Upper Hill offices and praised the regulator for playing a crucial role in promoting a robust media. The August 4 visit was used to familiarise Dr Matiangi with operations of the Council as well as foster a cordial working relationship.

Dr Matiangi was taken through various departments by Council chairman Peter Wakoli and Chief Executive Officer Haron Mwangi.

He latter addressed a press conference at the Council’s board room.

Dr Mwangi commended the Cabinet Secretary for visiting the Council. Mr Wakoli emphasised the commitment of the Council to enhancing quality of journalism. He affirmed the crucial place of the media in promoting socio-economic and political development, adding the council had partnered with the Ministry of ICT in many initiatives aimed at enhancing professionalism.

Dr Matiangi commended the leadership of the Council for effectively regulating the media industry and setting high standards for the practice of journalism. The Cabinet Secretary outlined the government’s commitment to promoting a free and robust media as enshrined in the Constitution. “The government

will support a free media to expand the democratic space in the country,” he said. He told the media fraternity that the government fully supports independence of the media, adding that it is equally concerned about the welfare of journalists. “We support freedom of the press and journalists should be treated with dignity,” he added. He also said the government would not interfere with the independence of the media and the functions of MCK. Dr Matiangi said the media should regulate itself, a requirement put on the industry through the Media Council Act 2013 which recognises the Council as the body charged with the responsibility of setting the standards of the practice. He reiterated his ministry’s support to the Council’s planned vetting of media training institutions and called for collective efforts to improve quality. The Cabinet Secretary attributed unethical practices and nonadherence to the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism by some journalists to poor training. He singled out presenters in vernacular radio stations as the biggest culprits since most of them are untrained. He called upon media owners to invest in continuous training of staff.

Kevin Mabonga is a Communications Assistant at the Media Council of Kenya. kmabonga@mediacouncil.or.ke

Transition: Media Observer Under New Leadership

By Jerry Abuga The Media Council of Kenya’s quarterly magazine, the Media Observer, has a new Editorial Board. Veteran journalist and media trainer Joe Kadhi is the new chair of the board, replacing immediate former Nation Media Group Joseph Odindo. Kadhi, a former Managing Editor of the Daily 6

Nation, currently teaches media ethics at the United States International University.

Another veteran journalist and media trainer Dr Martha Mbugguss is the new Vice Chairperson of the board. Dr Mbugguss, who teaches mass communication at Africa Nazarene University, has been a member of the Editorial Board.

Other members of the board include the Managing Editor at African Woman and

Child Feature Service Jane Godia , former Nation Media Group Editorial Director Mr Wangethi Mwangi, the Dean of the School of Communication, Language and Performing Arts at Daystar University Prof Levi Obonyo and Human Rights Watch researcher and former journalist Otsieno Namwaya.

Jerry Abuga is the Communications & Information Officer at the Media Council of Kenya.

jabuga@mediacouncil.or.ke

The Media The Observer July-September 2014

INSIDE THE COUNCIL Media Council of Kenya CEO Dr Haron Mwangi addressing the stakeholders’ meeting on coverage of security.

Media Council of Kenya stakeholders meeting on coverage of national security

Council hosts stakeholders’ meeting on media, national security

By Kevin Mabonga

M

edia Council of Kenya convened a stakeholders meeting to discuss the coverage of security issues. The meeting, held at a Nairobi hotel on July 3, 2014 and which was attended by representatives from media associations was part of a series of sessions organised for media owners, editors and various arms of government and Parliament that deal with security.

Representatives from Kenya Union of Journalists, Kenya Correspondents Association and the Association of Media Women in Kenya attended.

Media Council CEO Dr Haron Mwangi termed the meeting important owing to concerns on media coverage of national security. Dr Mwangi said the public had high expectations on the media to provide the most accurate information in order to stem speculation and unwarranted tension. He lauded media houses for embracing balanced reporting on security and politics, saying journalists should continue adhering to the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism.

Dr Mwangi announced that the Council would continue engaging media stakeholders and security agencies towards ensuring responsible coverage. He pledged the council’s commitment to working with media organisations to enhance professionalism.

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Council Deputy CEO and Programmes Manager Victor Bwire encouraged professional media associations to work together in order to collectively address emerging challenges.

Participants at the meeting lauded the Media Council for taking the initiative to address coverage of security issues, which they termed ‘sensitive’. They also took issue with instances of irresponsible journalism involving security matters. “These kinds of discussions are very useful and I encourage the Media Council and other media bodies to work together towards addressing professional challenges in the industry,” said Anthony Wafula of the Kenya Media Programme.

At the meeting, veteran journalist and journalism lecturer Joe Kadhi made a presentation on media and national security. He presented a critical look at how Kenyan newspapers covered the Mpeketoni killings and the Westgate Mall attack. The dialogue sessions have been convened in the wake of blame game and inconsistent adherence to the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya.

Kevin Mabonga is a Communications Assistant at the Media Council of Kenya. kmabonga@mediacouncil.or.ke

7

INSIDE THE COUNCIL

Council bets

ON standard curriculum to improve

quality

By Victor Bwire

A recent training by the Media Council on the extractive industry in Kwale County.

he Media Council of Kenya recently ran an advertisement asking colleges offering journalism and media studies in Kenya to provide details of their certificates of registration by the Government, location, list and qualifications of lecturers and staff and an inventory of equipment/facilities.

to oversee college inspection and accreditation that will move around the country to ensure training institutions have qualified tutors and equipment. There is also a team to handle examinations that will work closely with KNEC on exams setting and marking.

T

The public announcement was made in preparation for a national inspection and accreditation of colleges and launch of a standard curriculum for journalism in Kenya, which is going to alter the profession radically. The number of universities and colleges offering journalism and media studies in Kenya has been growing in big numbers, while the industry has been complaining about the quality and relevance of some courses.

Editors have raised issues regarding the skills imparted, standards in the institutions and the credibility of the courses.

Indeed, there is no single standard training curriculum for journalists in Kenya currently.

This is set to change since the Media Council of Kenya has prepared a national standardised curriculum for all diploma and certificate trainings in journalism that will shortly be launched. All colleges will be required to use the curriculum and the examinations will be handled in collaboration with the Kenya National Examination Council. Already, the curriculum is being validated by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) department at the Ministry of Education, while the Commission for Higher Education has already given it a clean bill of health.

In addition to the traditional course units, the curriculum provides for industry driven courses and lays emphasis on specialisation. It comes with specific tailored course teaching modules that seek to fill in the competence gaps that the industry has been yawning for. The Council has set up a team 8

While the curriculum development process started three years ago at the Council, the commencement of the Media Council Act, No 46 of 2013 early this year gives a legal framework for the Council to regulate the standards of journalism training in Kenya.

Under the Media Council Act 2013 section 6(1)(f), the Media Council of Kenya is required to set standards in consultation with the relevant training institutions, for professional education and training of journalists. Section 6(1)(n) provides that the Council subject to any other written law, will consider and approve applications for accreditation by educational institutions that seek to offer courses in journalism.

Section 6(1)(h) of the Act requires that the Council accredits local journalists and foreign journalists by certifying their competence, authority or credibility against official standards based on the quality and training in Kenya including the maintaining of a register of journalists, media enterprises and other related registers as it may deem fit. This is meant to ensure that the Council enforces professionalism and regulates the conduct and discipline of journalists. With the law and the curriculum now ready, journalism training is set for a new phase, and probably, this will help in improving the profession by ensuring training responds to industry needs.

Victor Bwire is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Programmes Manager at the Media Council of Kenya. He is a safety trainer for journalists. victor@mediacouncil.or.ke

The Media Observer July-September 2014

ETHICS AND TRAINING: Exploring the elusive, critical link Multiplicity of institutions claiming to teach journalism can hardly be all relied on in inculcating philosophical foundation as the cornerstone of introductory classes to ensure future trained members of the Fourth Estate would understand their watchdog role, writes JOE KADHI.

T

here is not a single journalistic story written that can claim to be above the adherence to ethical principles. That being the case then, not a single journalism class can be complete without some reference to ethical principles. Hand in hand with that suggestion is, arguably, the adherence to the ethical standards of the teaching profession. Whether those teaching ethical standards should be universally identical or whether they should be

The Media Observer July-September 2014

differently designed by individual institution is a matter of opinion.

Be that as it may, the ethical standards for teaching profession of the Ontario College of Teachers is probably worth examining while discussing this sensitive subject. Among o t h e r things it

9

ethics and training claims that care, respect, trust and integrity are among the most vital pillars of the ethical standards for the teaching profession. About care, for example, it says that it should include compassion, acceptance, interest and insight for developing students’ potential. It further suggests that members express their commitment to students’ well-being and learning through positive influence, professional judgment and empathy in practice.

Applying those principles in teaching any subject in journalism, for example, would involve making the journalists in embryo, from the early stages look at the profession in the manner in which the fathers of one of the first ethical principles in journalism did in 1922. At that time, the members of the American Society of Newspaper Editors believed freedom of the press was to be guarded as a vital right of mankind.

According to them, it was the unquestionable right to discuss whatever was not explicitly forbidden by law, including the As the body charged with the responsibility of promoting high professional wisdom of any restrictive statutes. standards amongst journalists in Kenya, the Council conducts specialised and tailor-made trainings for media practitioners in a number of areas.

Today, the multiplicity of institutions that claim to be teaching journalism in this country can hardly be all relied on in Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) inculcating that philosophical foundation as the cornerstone had petitioned the National Assembly to expunge offensive of all introductory classes of the profession to make sure that clauses in the Parliamentary Powers and Privileges Bill 2014 all future trained members of the Fourth Estate in Kenya would that bars media from scrutinising the business of the House. understand their watchdog role in society. Today, one of the institutions that care about the manner in which journalism According to the news bulletin, Editors Guild chairman Linus students are taught the ethics of the profession is the Freedom Kaikai questioned the motive behind Parliament’s renewed Forum which has a special museum in Washington for move to gag the media, adding that Eldas MP Adan Keynan who sponsored the Bill could not stop progression of the defenders of freedom of expression especially journalists. media. The story said Kaikai warned that the Bill would take Known as Newseum, the museum has a special section that Kenya way back to 1982 when the National Assembly in less explains the importance of ethics to journalism teachers taking than one hour, debated and passed a Bill that amended the students to the section. On the wall of that section are former independence Constitution and declared Kenya a de welcoming remarks which says: “We believe that your visit to jure one party State. the Newseum, along with this unit of study on media ethics, will help you and your students better understand the guidelines The significance of that story is that it clearly indicates that and principles journalists use to report stories. We believe this among about a dozen media institutions in the country only knowledge will help students better understand the role of the about two: The Editors’ Guild and the Media Owners free press and become more informed and critical news Association seemed to care about a sinister move by Kenya legislators to muzzle the media. If the belief that freedom of consumers.” expression was indeed a human right, which should at all times Explaining the importance of the unit, the organisers of the be jealously guarded by all professional journalists, the noise Newseum tell journalism lecturers that by actively participating being made by Kaikai would have been pushed to its crescendo in this unit, including pre-visit activities, a Newseum experience by being joined by an even lauder uproar of protestation from and post-visit activities, students will come to understand the the KUJ, KCA, the Public Media and the Media Academia to three guiding principles of journalism: fairness, accuracy and name just a few. clarity. According to the organisers, the students become urnalism editors and reporters and grapple with real-life ethical ach all jo e extent e t o t n io at larg decisions that journalists are faced with every day.

The oblig es of , and to a At the time of writing this article, Capital News announced on its website that news editors, parliamentary journalists and the 10

duate chniqu e a undergrauate, students tea s becom d postgra tive journalism h ool t anvestigavital pedagogic

The Media Observer July-September 2014

ethics and training taught ics, wheny go into h t E ia d e aturall ct of M The subje as a unit would nlevant examples ly separateetails of quoting renoring the code. greater donsequences of ig of the c investigative journalism can be complete without serious discussions on the ethical principles involved in the entire exercise. Among the most important of these principles are misrepresentation, opportunity to reply, accuracy and fairness.

Due to the secrecy that covers all corrupt activities in Kenya, misrepresentation as an ethical principle becomes necessary in order to get to the truth before putting pen on paper. Also known as subterfuge, the principle requires journalists to generally identify themselves and not obtain or seek to obtain information or pictures through misrepresentation or subterfuge. But the principle also says subterfuge can be justified only in the public interest and only when material cannot be obtained by any other means.

It is specifically for reasons of defending free speech that the ASNE deliberately included Freedom of the Press among the first seven principles which many scholars believe is the oldest code of ethics for journalists which its drafters named the Canons of Journalism. The other six principles were Independence, Impartiality, Fair Play, Accuracy, Decency and Responsibility. With the exception of Freedom of the Press which is today found in most good Constitutions of democratic regimes, all the other six principles are by and large found in almost all journalism ethical principles in almost all parts of the world.

As a profession, journalism in all of its manifestations must at all times be accompanied by strict adherence to ethical principles which in Kenya happen to be 25. Though freedom of the press is not listed in Kenya as an ethical principle, teaching media ethics without giving students a historical perspective about selfregulation in Kenya would leave students fairly ignorant about how the struggle to stop the Government from imposing a Code of Ethics for journalists in 1993 was conducted. Inevitably, therefore, the element of self-regulation in journalism becomes part and parcel of teaching ethical principles.

This, in my view, can best be done by letting students know from the very beginning, their different roles as members of the Fourth Estate and how that role is protected by Articles 33, 34 and 35 of our Constitution. Today the one most challenging story that is crying to be done most urgently by members of the Fourth Estate in Kenya is the exposĂŠ that will lay bare the deep rooted corruption in our society.

The obligation to teach all journalism undergraduate, and to a large extent postgraduate, students techniques of investigative journalism has become a vital pedagogic tool. But no lesson on

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Naturally any publication of stories based on subterfuge is bound to cause a considerable amount of controversy that may even lead the accused people demanding to be given an opportunity to reply. That is why it is extremely important to make students understand the ethical principle of Opportunity to Reply while teaching the rudiments of investigative journalism. Anyone who has taught media ethics in Kenya would know that Opportunity to Reply as an ethical principle is closely related to the new section of the Defamation Act (Cap 36) which came as an Act of Parliament to make minor amendment of the Statute law in 1992.

According to this section which was inserted immediately after section 7 known as the Right of Reply states that people are entitled to a right of reply to factual inaccuracy damaging to the character, reputation or good standing. Subsection (2) demands that correction shall be printed in the next possible edition of the newspaper while Subsection (3) cleverly says the reply will be published free of charge and will be of similar prominence and similar place.

The law also demands that the reply should be of such length as is necessary to identify the original item. It requires those seeking that opportunity to do so in writing to the editor or publisher of the newspaper within a period of fourteen days from the date of publication of the damaging material provided that the right of reply shall be exercisable after a period of six months from the publication of the relevant damaging material.

It is important for students learning investigative journalism to understand that civil proceedings for libel that may follow the publication of exposĂŠs allow courts to award additional amount of damages for defamation where the publisher has failed or 11

ethics and training

Students register for their studies at a local university.

refused to publish a correction or failed to give it the prominence required by this section. Likewise if the plaintiff fails to exercise this right the amount of damages could be reduced.

This specific example showing the importance of understanding the ethical principle of Opportunity to Reply while teaching investigative journalism proves that the Code of Ethics for journalism in Kenya cannot and should not be ignored when teaching any subject of the profession. The subject of Media Ethics, when taught separately as a unit would naturally go into greater details of quoting relevant examples of the consequences of ignoring the code.

A useful book that shows the importance of mastering ethical principles in every aspect of journalism has been compiled by Lee Anne Peck, an associate professor of journalism and mass communications in the School of Communication at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley and Guy S. Reel, who is also an associate professor of mass communication at Winthrop University in Rock Hill. This book provides those entry-level cases along with the tools to help students reason through them.

The authors tell the true stories of young media professionals who struggled with an ethical dilemma early in their careers in public relations, advertising and print, broadcast and online journalism. According to the two scholars these young people face a wide range of difficult choices. They discuss some perennial problems which journalists face such as what to do when sources try to “take back” what they have told reporters for a story.

The book, Media Ethics at Work, also discusses issues concerning journalism ethics in the digital age: for instance, whether it’s right to go online pretending to be someone else, or whether to remove a story from a Web archive at a source’s request. Another scholar who believes in teaching students rights from wrong in digital age is Doug Johnson, the Director of Technology for the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage (MN) Public Schools who is also an adjunct faculty member of Minnesota 12

State University.

In a paper discussing this important subject titled “Teaching Students Right from Wrong in the Digital Age”, he argues that computer ethics, better called information technology ethics, is an important but under-taught subject in our schools.

According to him new technologies bring about the need to interpret old values in new ways, but also may call for the creation of new codes of conduct when new actions are made possible with the use of technology.

Claiming that several ethical codes dealing with technology use exists in the US and that many schools have adopted what he describes as “Acceptable Use Policies” that include rules for the proper use of information technologies he suggests that teachers, students, and parents need to know and understand these codes.

Arguing that for children, the major issues surrounding technology ethics can be categorised into three areas: privacy, property, and appropriate use, he points out that school related cases can be found in each of these areas. Suggesting that teachers need to develop learning objectives and activities that specifically address technology ethics, Johnson claims that proper use needs to be taught at the same time that other computer skills are taught.

To him students’ understanding of ethical concepts need to be assessed because technology use privileges, especially those involving on-line use, should not be given to students until the assessments show that a student knows and can apply ethical standards and school policies. Obviously Johnson is talking about the introduction of ethical principles in teaching digital technology in American schools; but the ideas he is advancing could be extremely useful in teaching online journalism in Kenya.

Joe Kadhi, a former Managing Editor of the Daily Nation, currently teaches media ethics at the United States International University. He is also the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Media Observer magazine. joekadhi@yahoo.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Mapping media training needs in a changing world According to WILSON UGANGU, media companies should prioritise in-service training to respond to the dynamic audience tastes as well as technological shifts since schools of communication cannot competently do so due to traditional limitations.

F

or a long time, media training in Kenya has been in the spotlight. In 1964, UNESCO dispatched communications scholars, Prof Wilber Schramm and Lloyd Sommerlad, to assess media training needs in Kenya and Tanganyika. The two experts concluded there was need for short-term training, mainly in the form of in-service and or short courses.

This type of training was supposed to urgently address the capacity gaps among those already employed in the various sectors of the media at the time. At the same, the two experts also recommended that longer term training be reserved for a select few who would have proved themselves at work or through the short courses that they had capacity to undertake training overseas.

The kind of training Schramm and Sommerlad envisaged was one that would build skills over a short period. It would, in orientation, emphasise practical elements of mass communication including for instance, skills in television programming, broadcast technical work, journalistic writing skills and film making. Following these recommendations, the first three decades after independence, media training needs in Kenya were mostly informed and influenced by a strong developmentalist model of journalism. Journalism students were mostly expected, at the end of the day, to understand the link between their profession and the country’s developmental aspirations.

Schramm and Sommerlad’s report provided a useful blueprint for such an approach to media training. The two experts had, in their report, noted that although the young nations of East Africa had recognised the importance of mass communication in national development programmes, “the mass media, the

The Media Observer July-September 2014

great multipliers and extenders of information, were not being used to their full capacity.”

From the foregoing, it would seem that mass media training needs, at the time of independence and the decades that followed were clearly definable. The needs were clear; to quickly get a cadre of professionals equipped with relevant skills and with a good understanding of the role of media in the development agenda. Such professionals were required to run the various departments at mostly government-owned media institutions such as the Voice of Kenya, the Kenya Film Corporation and the Kenya Institute of Education.

Into the 21st century, the media eco system nationally and globally has completely transformed. Most media institutions in Kenya are privately owned and operate strictly on commercial lines in comparison to the situation at independence. The government’s stake has reduced over the years since liberalisation of the sector in the early 1990s. This transformation, coupled with changing technologies associated with production and dissemination of information continue to re-shape media training programmes in the country and globally.

The one obvious consequence of the growth of the media and communications sector in the country has been the increase in the number of media training institutions. Private media companies are looking for skilled and knowledgeable professionals, who can provide strategic leadership and innovation needed to give them an edge in a highly competitive environment. In a recent interview with the BBC Africa Business Report, I have shared the view that current shifts in the Kenyan society, particularly at the social cultural level, occasioned by globalisation, have in effect led to greater fragmentation of media audiences as new identity groups continue to emerge and seek spaces for expression. It is these emerging identity groups that are providing niche markets and or expanding investment opportunities in the media.

In comparison to the situation in the first decade after independence, today’s media audience(s) is educated, dynamic and globalised. Kenya today boasts of an expanding middle class whose media tastes and preferences are informed by extra-national and global experiences.

To address, such emerging demands, private media companies want professionals who are alert to these dynamics, and who 13

mapping media training can therefore tailor media content in ways that will meet such needs. The media market share is therefore a fleeting one.

Today’s media professional has to bear in mind that the audience is ever changing. Today’s audience will not be there tomorrow. Yet the business has to survive.

It therefore means that, unlike in 1964, today’s media professional requires a broader vision and knowledge base.

Training has to prioritise skill development, but also build a dynamic professional equipped with a high sense of analysis and understanding of the social economic and political environment in which they operate. Today’s professional should have a keen understanding of the implications of globalisation on the local environment. Media training should therefore endeavor to develop the kind of professional who can work comfortably in a converged media environment, where the individual is expected to play multiple professional roles without failing in any of them.

A close observation of the media training environment reveals that most schools have invested in facilities to provide handson experience to trainee journalists and other budding professionals in the growing communications landscape.

There is, however, need to recalibrate training curricula to orient them to a changing communications world. Traditional subjects such as logical thinking, sociology, anthropology, history, political science and economics are, however, still vitally important for today’s media and communication professional.

A journalist who will serve as editorial coordinator for a private entity with regional presence will, for instance, require a good knowledge base on the politics of regional economic integration, national cultures and globalisation. So far, media training institutions have not done well in producing such well-rounded graduates with the capacity to operate in a dynamic, changing and globalising environment.

Yet, in recent years, the number of media training institutions in Kenya has grown, perhaps as an indicator of the growing relevance and need for professional training in mass communication. Most universities have continued to establish departments, faculties or whole schools to cater for the growing demand for training in mass communication. Unlike in Schramm’s and Sommerlad’s recommendations of 1964, today’s prospective mass communication student, is at the time of enrolment into a degree or diploma programme, conversant with the

ing sts of an expand Kenya today boa media tastes and se middle class who informed by extrae ar es nc prefere bal experiences national and glo

14

use of basic communication gadgets such as cell phones, computer, Internet and keenly aware of the use of social media. Such graduates require schools of communication to build on this basic capacity. They require schools of communication to harness existing creative energies and channel them towards supporting the development of a dynamic professional capable of delivering leadership in the development of quality media products.

In Kenya, as perhaps, is the case in many other countries, so often, one is treated to a never ending criticism, particularly by industry players about the raw skilled and ill-prepared graduates joining the workforce. My view is that, given the professional complexities that obtain today (as opposed to the situation in 1964), we have to stop looking at university or college level training as the ultimate solution. Such training is obviously mandatory, but should be regarded as a basic building block. We must understand and contextualise the basic mission of universities. In my view, universities will have to continue to inculcate the basic academic skills of critical thinking, analysis and research. This is their basic academic mission. These elements, however, are very critical in the formation of other higher competencies including professional leadership.

Media companies should prioritise in service training, in order to respond to the ever changing audience tastes and preferences as well as technological shifts. Schools of communication cannot competently do this given the traditional limitations associated with infrastructural investments. Companies such as the British Broadcasting Corporation have long seen such need and have therefore developed regular training schedules to update employee skills and knowledge to enable them to continue to function in a changing communications environment.

It would also be important for media trainers to have a good understanding of the kinds of journalism model(s) that are predominant in Kenya. Recent studies indicate what obtains in Kenya is some kind of hybrid journalism. This model combines elements of liberal/Western style (CNN like) journalism with developmentalist approaches that draw from the age old idea that media have to play a role in development and nation building. A third influence is globalisation and how it continues to shape and influence audience preferences, which, in itself, is a key operational factor for private media entities.

Wilson Ugangu, PhD, is a lecturer of media studies at Multimedia University of Kenya. ugangu@yahoo.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Fitting the classroom into the newsroom As students learn in a classroom setting, reporting and writing exercises carried out do not simulate newsroom conditions and deadlines, in what can be summed up as arm-chair journalism. PETER MWAURA explores the sad state of affairs.

I

n journalism, the question is always asked: Why is it that schools of journalism fail to produce graduates who can hit the ground running? Such a question is also common in other areas of professional education such as law and medicine. But in no other area is the question as prevalent as in journalism.

The lag between journalism education and practice of journalism will probably always be there. Media organisations often have the wherewithal to innovate and change with market forces, while schools of journalism do not always have the resources to keep up with such changes. Journalism schools embedded in universities also often have to battle with academic orthodoxy and lack of understanding or appreciation of the central role of practical skills in journalism education. Bridges, however, can still be built to close the chasm.

Building bridges involves answering a series of questions: How should we teach someone how to be a journalist? How theoretical or academic should journalism education be? How practical should it be? How much should journalism education focus on the subjects journalists cover? Who should teach journalism and what kind of qualifications should he have?

United States model To answer those questions, it is necessary to go back briefly in our history. We inherited journalism from Britain, the colonial power, where under the Fleet Street tradition, journalism training was based on apprenticeship and journalism was seen more as a trade than a profession. It is not necessary here to debate the merits of the system or the age-old problem of whether journalism is a trade or a profession. Suffice it to say that the British tradition did not take root in Kenya. When Kenya achieved independence in 1963, there was need for a

The Media Observer July-September 2014

crash programme to train African journalists to replace the departing British journalists who dominated the country’s journalism. Thus the first training for journalists in Kenya was a six-month programme sponsored by the International Press Institute in the late 1960s. This metamorphosed into what came be known as the School of Journalism in the University of Nairobi in the early 1970s, the premier journalism school today which offers degree courses in journalism and media studies. The School of Journalism has since become the model for all the other university-based schools of journalism.

A cursory look at the journalism training curricula in Kenya’s universities confirms this. It shows a striking similarity of the courses offered, almost to the point of being carbon copies. It is not surprising, therefore, that all schools of journalism in this country produce, without exception, graduates who the media say are half-baked. What the media industry means is that they are not well prepared to carry out their duties without further training on the job. This is what has come to be known as the glaring disconnect between the classroom and the newsroom. It is real. And there are echoes of it even in the US, which inspired our journalism education.

Nation Media Group symbolises the perception that journalism schools in Kenya are not effectively meeting industry needs. It has set up an in-house training programme –called the Media Lab– in which it trains its own journalists. The group, through the Aga Khan University in Nairobi, has also set up a Graduate School of Media and Communication led by a former American journalist and editor, Michael Meyer. Nation’s efforts are, in fact, a vote of no confidence in the schools of journalism that have been churning out graduates, with journalism degrees, who cannot hit the ground running.

Case studies Why don’t our journalism graduates hit the ground running?

To answer that question, we must begin by looking at what is taught in the journalism and mass communication schools in 15

classroom into news room Kenya. We will do this by looking at two common courses, News Writing and Reporting, and Media Law and Ethics. For News Writing and Reporting, students are taught using textbooks that are mainly written for American or British students.

While the principles of news reporting remain the same regardless of the culture, the students are confronted with American or British examples. To remain practical and relevant, this requires the lecturer teaching the course to find or manufacture local examples. This is not always done or sufficiently done. But even more troubling is the lack of learning by doing. Classes, in general, meet normally once a week for less than three hours. The time is spent mostly in learning theory as opposed to practice. Students learn in a classroom setting.

Assignments and reporting and writing exercises carried out do not simulate newsroom conditions and deadlines. Most of what they do can be summed up as arm-chair journalism.

For Media Law and Ethics, the course is taught as if it was intended for law graduates. The curriculums lay emphasis on what the law or ethics are or should be, but little is said or done to show, for example, how students can avoid or mitigate libel or even do ethics –-the skills they will need when they hit the job market.

The two courses illustrate the theory-practice disconnect. The disconnect mutates. It takes many forms. It becomes an academic-professional divide, a struggle between academicbased journalism lecturers and industry-based journalism lecturers, and between theory-based disciplines and practicebased professions.

Ways to build bridges So what can be done to close the divide? Schools of journalism must revise their curricula, and acquire the necessary equipment and technologies to produce graduates who can work effectively in the new technological environment in which the media operates. But for that to happen, other measures are required including the following which in many cases overlap: Hiring more professionals as teachers: Schools of journalism should hire more professionals, even if they have no PhD, who bring experience and expertise from the real-world of journalism.

Hiring policies should target journalists-turned-journalism educators who can pass on vocational skills rather than degreeholders-turned journalism educators, who can only pass on book knowledge.

Integration: Schools of journalism should integrate professionals into their academic programmes as a way of connecting the schools to the real world of journalism. This would involve working cooperatively with the industry. For example, a media organisation could loan a reporter or editor to teach part-time or full-time for a given period.

16

Collaboration: Schools of journalism should, in collaboration with the media, provide continuing education for their lecturers to keep their professional skills and knowledge current. This could take many forms including workshops and short courses as well as attachment to media organisations. This should be a requirement for remaining on their faculties just in the same way the Law Society of Kenya requires lawyers to participate in continuing education to retain their practising certificates.

Research: Schools of journalism should engage in researchbased studies. The researches should analyse and explore issues of practice and professional relevance as well as relevant developments in journalism training and education.

In conclusion, many journalism educators have observed that education will undergo fundamental shifts in how journalism is taught and who teaches it. Those who don’t innovate in the classroom will be left behind — just like those who chose not to innovate in the newsroom. There is a big disconnect between professional journalists and the academic community. But even journalism educators worry that journalism education isn’t keeping pace. In recent years, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of universities and colleges, with many of them offering journalism. There are some 60 universities colleges in Kenya and this number is likely to increase and so will be the number of students taking journalism courses.

While opportunities for career openings in journalism have expanded with the increase in the number of newspapers, radio and television stations, as well as opportunities in public relations, we are soon going to reach a point – if we are not already there – where there will be a shakeout. Journalism education, and how it is taught and who teaches it, will undergo fundamental shifts.

Peter Mwaura is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Communication and Journalism, Kenya Methodist University and a former member of the Media Council of Kenya’s Complaints Commission. gigirimwaura@yahoo.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Noble trade TAKES A beating as standards plummet As TOM OLANG’ found out, the shortcomings in media training are conversely proportional to the quality and commitment of journalists graduating from respective schools of journalism.

T

here was a time journalism was a noble and coveted profession. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry could be a media practitioner unless they had the vigour and requisite machismo to practise the trade. Like teaching, journalism was not a job for the faint-hearted, neither was it a career for those hell-bent on making a quick buck, as it were. Those were the days before the 1990s when only three institutions were for training journalists in Kenya: Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC), Daystar University, and the University of Nairobi’s School of Journalism.

A few could cross the border and join Nyegezi Social Training Institute in Mwanza, Tanzania, which has since been upgraded and renamed St Augustine University.

In the case of the University of Nairobi and KIMC, one had to do an oral interview and undertake a rigorous written examination before admission. So thorough was the vetting that it inevitably led to the production of veteran and skilled journalists at the end of the training. In fact, training opportunities were so limited that KIMC would admit only 20 candidates countrywide for print media. The training was equally thorough, even though technological advancement was not so high. However, the situation has since changed for the worse and standards have plummeted. You need not be an empirical researcher to establish that in every storeyed building in Nairobi and other major towns, there exists one institution or the other posing as a ‘media training school’ and purporting to offer ‘quality training’. This scenario has resulted in many impostors who have tarnished the hitherto good name of media practice.

It should be borne in mind that journalism is a calling that

The Media Observer July-September 2014

requires a high level of integrity, commitment, and a wide general knowledge. This is not the reality, though. The trade has been infiltrated by self-seekers who are only after the perceived prestige that comes with being a journalist. I attended a media event a couple of years ago and I was pleasantly surprised at the high number of ‘new colleagues’ who ‘graced’ the occasion. As usual, I took a few contacts for purposes of networking. I was shocked later when I met one of my new contacts somewhere along Moi Avenue in the same tattered jacket he wore during the event, begging for fare from me and other people he bumped into.

Perhaps due to the glamour associated with electronic media such as television, and radio, a number of young people are jostling for space in the press box, with little or no consideration of the amount of responsibility required of them, let alone academic prowess or professional ethics. Their primary motivation seems to be limited to the insatiable quest for fame and fortune by hook or crook! A bad precedent. With the advent of the relatively fluid new media, regulating the industry has become an even more daunting task. Citizen journalists are in every street corner and churn their own brand of news, a phenomenon that directly hinders professionalism.

The flaws in recruiting trainees for media training schools have not helped either. All it takes these days to join a college of journalism is one’s certificates and a willingness to pay college tuition fees. In most of these colleges, nobody cares whether trainees meet the requisite contact hours or personal integrity.

There are cases where students only come to sit for exams and skip classes for a whole semester. I once visited a middle level college which offers the London-based ICM exam with the 17

noble trade

Publicity: A roadshow by a Kenyan media house. intention of pursuing a diploma course in Journalism. My challenge was that I could not make it to class daily due to work-related issues. The lady at the reception was quick to tell me that there was no cause for alarm as I could just register and pay fees, photocopy the lecture notes, read them at home and return later to sit for examinations. I am certain even the examining body was not aware of such a shady arrangement. I did not enrol for the course! This is just one among the many loopholes prevalent in media training. To streamline media practice, proper mechanisms should be put in place by respective stakeholders at all levels so that only committed individuals are trained and/or retained as media practitioners and not mere masqueradors.

The industry regulator must keep updating the roll of accredited practitioners and those who keep flouting media ethics and respective media laws. The Media Council of Kenya recently decried the way media houses continue to flout the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya without batting an eyelid.

For a modicum of professionalism to be realised, the stakeholders as well as the industry regulators must stamp their feet on training. The Council has so far crafted a uniform curriculum to be used by all media trainees in tertiary institutions, which is a step in the right direction. The challenge, however, will be on how to implement it uniformly across the country. Training of journalists has neither been adequate nor uniform since each institution has been using what it deems fit to train media personnel.

Another tragedy has been accentuated by the fact that media entrepreneurs are so keen on the balance sheet that they would rather hire quacks whom they pay peanuts or volunteers whose satisfaction is a mere presence in the newsroom or brushing shoulders with news makers while on a beat. It is said that 75 per cent of news processed are written by correspondents and stringers. Since the latter are poorly paid, the temptation to extort news sources or be compromised to slant their copy is pretty high.

Meanwhile, the training in most colleges is too general and the It is unfortunate that the bulk of the Kenyan media houses and schools lack the capacity to train specialist journalists. frequencies have landed in the hands of conniving politicians Consequently, we have scribes who are jacks of all trades and and powerful operatives in government and the private sector. masters of none. At the same time, there are those journalists have stagnated at the same job These fellows have made it their personal business to gag the w h o group with no clear-cut avenue for media in very subtle ways to itioners’ ct ra ‘p d ne ai tr career progression; this is one of suit their own selfish A number of un the profession, and ed the factors that lead to an outflow at interests, creating a serious have infiltr why media s in la p ex s p ha of experienced journalists to conflict of interest. this per of conduct is e d co e th d an other careers. ethics punity breached with im One of the issues that compromise professionalism Thus, the shortcomings in media training are revolves around training or lack of it and the question of conversely proportional to the quality and commitment of remuneration. A number of untrained ‘practitioners’ have journalists that graduate from respective schools of journalism. infiltrated the profession, and this perhaps explains why media We have media trainers who bombard trainees with theories, ethics and the Code of Conduct is breached with impunity. At yet they have never had a by-line to their credit. It would be the same time, there are those who are poorly trained and just better if trainees interacted more with media practitioners to drift through the motions with the least care in the world or no avoid the culture shock that ensues when the trainees enter the idea how media matter should be conducted. field or newsroom for that matter. A trainer with hands-on experience in the industry would be more effective and a better With increased liberation of the airwaves since the early 1990s, mentor than an arm-chair philosopher whose only interaction a number of media houses have mushroomed that, at best, with the industry is the textbook and lecture theatre. practise yellow journalism, thus compromising standards further. Some of these news rags have found their way in Tom Olang’ is a freelance journalist and media scholar at county governments where political operatives use them to Daystar University. mudsling their perceived opponents. olangtom@yahoo.com 18

The Media Observer July-September 2014

How moral BLUNDERS set the stage for professional training

It can be safely argued that while past mistakes in news media were a source of pain and embarrassment, the same blunders thankfully led to the establishment of journalism training during the professional era, writes MARTHA MBUGUSS.

P

opularity and notoriety have been the two most notable faces of journalism historically.

Contradictory as this statement sounds, it is backed up by facts that led to loud calls for proper journalism training in 1890s.

Although the press had gained much popularity at that time, journalism was accused of being greatly flawed, full of sensationalism and dishonesty. The cutthroat competition between two outstanding journalism personalities, Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World and William Radolph Hearst of New York Journal did not help the situation.

For purposes of comparison with some of the things occurring today in some sections of the media, the newspapers of the day specialised in sex, personal scandals, murders, arson and suicides. A story which would be unethical, callous and negligent even by today’s standards published in the New York Journal, for example, went as far as advocating for the assassination of President William McKinley by editorialising; ‘’Institutions, like men, will last until they die; and if bad institutions and bad men can be got rid of only by killing, then the killing must be done.’’ (Ferre in Wilkins and Christians, 2009 pp 15-27).

As if that type of outrage was not enough, a famous agnostic Robert G Ingersoll carried a story in the New York World that was pro-suicide. In the story, the writer attacked laws that punished would-be suicides and kind of recommended suicide for those who found life to have no value, “when one is of no assistance to others; why should man continue?’’ He asked and provided details on how to commit suicide. The end result was a huge rise in suicide cases especially by young, impressionable people.

Up to that point, journalism was simply considered as trade and did not have specific guiding standards. The hue and cry from the public and the governments of the day led to a call for change in the practice of journalism.

Moral practices and standards gradually evolved through the 18th and 19th centuries as journalism very slowly took on characteristics of a profession.

Professionalism of journalism raised such issues as the need to separate news from opinion, a determination that poor taste should have no place in newspapers and the need to protect people’s privacy.

While the past mistakes in journalism were a source of pain and embarrassment, the same blunders thankfully led to the establishment of journalism training during the professional era. Between 1900 and 1930, the popularity of newspapers was increasing. Daily newspaper circulation was

The Media Observer July-September 2014

19

moral blunders growing by 260 per cent while the population grew only by 62 per cent. But the complaints against the press persisted that the news was often false, suppressed, biased or indecent. The press acknowledged its moral lapses and opted to bolster professional training and enact codes of ethics.

In 1900, The Journalist declared that college educated journalists wrote better, thought more broadly and were more ethical than their colleagues who were not college educated.

In 1910, Joseph Pulitzer donated two million dollars to endow the Graduated School of Journalism at Columbia University.

The school was to inculcate ethics in its teaching in the hope of helping the profession to attract and maintain young men of character and ability, and assist those already engaged in the profession to acquire the highest moral and intellectual training.

By 1915, journalism ethics courses were being taught at Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington universities. Other universities followed suit and by the 1920s, about 200 institutions offered journalism instructions intended to foster integrity, intelligence and objective-mindedness. It can be safely argued that lack of ethics in journalism prompted the genesis of journalism training.

Journalism training in Kenya dates back to 1960 when UNESCO in collaboration with the University of Nairobi established the University of Nairobi School of Journalism to train African journalists. Today, the university offers a four-year Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, a and a two year Master of Arts in Communication. The Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC) is also among the oldest communication institutions.

KIMC metamorphosed from an institution established in 1961 as an electronics engineering college to train technicians to be posted to Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. It became a mass communication college in 1967 to train journalists, announcers, and programme producers. It has been training print and broadcast journalists since 1975. In addition, Moi, Egerton, Maseno, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Technical University of Kenya, Kisii, Maasai Mara, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology and Multimedia University of Kenya are other public universities that offer mass communication studies.

The increase in the number of institutions offering mass communication and journalism and media studies in Kenya is perhaps an indication of the importance of the discipline on the one hand and the growing number of media outlets on the other. Daystar University, Africa Nazarene University, United States International University and St Paul’s University are among some of the most well-known private universities offering communication. Newer entrants who offer 20

communication and/or journalism studies include Mt Kenya University, Kenya Methodist University, Zetech University, and Nairobi Aviation College.

Daystar University, among the oldest private institutions offering communication, was established as Daystar Communications Center in Kenya in 1967. Although it was initially intended to improve techniques used in propagating the gospel, it has grown into one of the most well recognised communication universities offering undergraduate and doctoral degrees.

The increasing number of journalism training institutions has not fully protected the world in general and Kenya in particular from falling into journalistic mishaps. The media, especially ethnic radio stations, were accused of fanning the ethnic genocide in the Rwanda in 1994 that led to the death of over 800,000 people. The radio stations have been likened to weapons of murder, radio matchetes, for their believed role in routinising and legitimising violence through incitement and propaganda.

Kenyan vernacular radio stations were to receive similar blame in 2007/2008 election violence that left 1,300 people dead, 300,000 internally displaced and properties worth millions of shillings destroyed. Other complaints directed at the Kenyan media, especially vernacular radio stations, include the tendency to employ untrained or poorly trained personnel, comedians, Disc Jockeys beauty queens and all types of celebrities.

The listed complaints prompted the Media Council of Kenya to swing into action and get into the root of the matter. MCK carried an inspection of tertiary institutions offering journalism in Kenya and found out that sometimes training was offered in a haphazard manner, without proper resources such as trained personnel, equipment, studios and laboratories Complaints from editors in the media industry were to the effect that they were receiving half-baked journalism trainees from various institutions.

MCK’s second step was to gather a team of experts to prepare a uniform curriculum to be verified by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) which should be used to standardise training and examinations in all journalism training institutions. Accreditation of media practitioners by MCK will gradually be tied up to the quality, recognised training that they will have acquired.

Dr Martha Mbugguss is a lecturer of Mass Communication at Africa Nazarene University and a member of the Editorial Board of the Media Observer magazine. mmbugguss.mbugguss@gmail.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Gender equation

Are there few women in the media?

Female students account for a higher percentage of students in media colleges but few ever find their way into mainstream media houses, often opting for careers in communications and public relations, writes JANE GODIA.

M

edia houses and the environment in Kenya, just like the rest of the world, are seen to be heavily patriarchal.

However, despite this, the media landscape in Kenya is as wide as it has grown. A few years back, there was only one television station, the Voice of Kenya, which later changed its name to Kenya Broadcasting Corporation with a wide range of channels in English and Kiswahili as well as a few vernacular radio stations that shared frequencies. Then other stations soon found their way and now, the country has so many television stations with media houses diversifying to include all forms of media from broadcasting, print and online or digital.

During this period, the two daily newspapers — The Standard and Daily Nation — dominated the scene, until Kenya Times made a late entry. Other papers tried to make their entry in weekly or monthly publications but few have survived. Talking to lecturers at institutions of media training, the female students account for a greater percentage compared to their male counterparts, but few ever find their way into mainstream media houses, often opting for careers in communications and public relations.

According to Dr Wilson Ugangu, a lecturer at the Multimedia University, Nairobi, there are wide training opportunities in journalism and communications. “At training level, there are more female students as compared to men,” Ugangu says. At one time, I had a unit where there were 17 female students and only one male student.”

Dr Jane Thuo, a lecturer at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Nairobi, says: “In class, there are more women than men. The difference is significant.”

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Ugangu observes many girls are attracted to opportunities in media and communication but after graduating, few go into mainstream media. “In the final year, many of the female students clearly indicate they do not want to go into the newsroom and prefer careers in advertising, public relations and communications where there is more clout and money. Only a few end up in the media as reporters.” According to Ugangu, female students get discouraged after going through internship.

Thuo, on the other hand, says opportunities for one to work as a communications or public relations officer are more enticing. According to her, while many women have stuck to the profession of journalism because they have a passion for it, many opt out because the environment does not address their practical needs.

In the media industry, where it takes long hours of work beyond the standard eight hours per day, women suffer most when they find that they need to put in extra hours when stories are breaking out. This scenario has seen many women who have been trained in journalism leave the mainstream media so that they can go for the normal office jobs like public relations where they work from 8am to 5pm to enable them balance between domestic work and formal employment.

According to a research by the Global Report on the Status of Women in News Media, women participation in the journalistic labour force is lower than men’s overall, though the percentages vary from country to country.

In Kenya, men outnumber women at 2:1. Women hold around a third of jobs in junior and senior management (32.1 per cent and 34.6 per cent, respectively) where most important organisational and managerial decisions are made. This is because most important decisions in the media are made early in the morning or late in the evening when most women would want to be at home, caring for the children, cooking dinner or even collecting their children from school. This is in conflict with their ability to hold important positions in newsrooms, living them concentrated in positions where promotions are hardly carried out and where work ends early.

A majority will often leave newsroom work and opt for jobs in companies that operate eight to five, Monday to Friday. In media houses, the staffs work even on weekends. Married women find it difficult, especially when they have spouses unwilling to accept that the job may require that the woman spends a lot of time away from home. The society also does not understand. There is a lot of stereotyping around women working as journalists. The society’s attitude deflects many women from media studies since they are viewed as having questionable morals.

It is equally difficult for young mothers who have to attend to their children.

21

Gender equation Female students have equal educational opportunities like their male counterparts.

Being sent to cover conflict makes it even challenging for women.

Gender Links, an organisation based in South Africa, while researching on women in the media in 15 countries in a document called “The Glass Ceiling”, noted: “Men significantly outnumber women in the media and that men are more likely to be assigned bigger stories in hard news (politics, security, investigative) and more men are likely to be employed in full time regular jobs in the media than women.”

The Kenyan Media and Women in Political News research by African Woman and Child Features indicates that there are more men than women reporting on political issues in the print media. From the analysis of the sex of the reporter, the report notes, only nine per cent of the journalists who reported in the print media on political news were women compared to 91 per cent men.

According to Thuo, the media environment is patriarchal because systems in place do not recognise women’s needs. The socialisation that we go through in a patriarchal set up affects the way we execute our duties, including the stories that we bring out.

There are many editorial managers who carry with them cultural baggage and gender stereotypes into newsrooms and fail to realise that gender equality and equity should apply across the board in terms of duty assignment, promotions and trainings. Gender is the reference we make on the roles played by men and women in society and the relations created out of those roles. Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and artefacts that members of society use to cope with their world and with one another.

Margaret Gallagher, in Gender Setting: New Agendas for Media Monitoring and Advocacy notes: “Limitations in media content have been linked to women’s under representation and lack of power within the media industry.”

The Kenyan Media and Women in Political News research by African Woman and Child Feature Service indicates: “In all occupations/ positions, male numbers as sources of information on political issues surpassed those of their female counterparts. Men were found to be the main sources of information in prestigious professions like law (92 per cent), police/military (89 per cent) and politics (88 per cent) compared to eight per cent, 11 per cent, and 11 per cent enjoyed by women, respectively. It is instructive to note that male sources got more coverage for wielding political, coercive, adjudicative, economic, and expert power. This may mean two things: One, fewer women are represented in this powerful 22

positions or enjoy these sources of power; and secondly, media perceives, even those women wielding similar power, as being less knowledgeable, unwise, and subjective. These findings are at variance with reality where more women are acquiring professional training, owning media outlets, and getting into influential positions in government and corporate sectors.”

Esther Kamweru became the first woman to be appointed as Managing Editor in a media house when she was picked to drive The Sunday Standard. Those who later walked the same path include Pamela Makotsi and Zipporah Musau. Makotsi is now the Managing Editor of The East African, the largest selling regional publication.

Others who have served as deputy managing editors include Jane Godia, Dorcas Odumbe and Lucy Oriang among others.

In the broadcasting scene, women seem to be doing better than in print. Women who have held senior positions include Faridah Karoney who served as Editorial Director at Royal Media Services and is currently the Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Mercy Oburu is the Editor in Chief, a position that has never been held by a woman before. Others women in electronic media include Julie Gichuru, Anne Kiguta, Lillian Muli, Terryanne Chebet, Linda Ogutu as senior anchors among others. Jemimah Mungai is Managing Editor, Administration, at Royal Media Services. NTV broadcasting division has Betty Dindi as Managing Editor of QTV.There is also Rachel Nakitare of KBC. Thuo says many women will prefer radio than print journalism.

“There are greater gender disparities when one gets to print.”

Media houses have not been sensitive in terms of employing and promoting women to positions of leadership and decision making.

KBC has 80 people working in the newsroom out which 42 are women and 38 men. However, women hardly feature in the senior positions as there is only one woman senior editor and six news editors. It has one television manager and two TV controllers who are women and two radio services chiefs.Nation Media Group has tried to ensure that affirmative action is applied at 50-50 when employing reporters. However, this then changes when it comes to promotions and giving assignments. All the other media houses do not have a gender policy.

Jane Godia is a Gender and Media Expert and serves as Managing Editor at African Woman and Child Feature Service (AWCFS).

She is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Media Observer magazine.. jgodia@awcfs.org

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Why journalism education isn’t keeping

pace

While media trainers defend their institutions, industry players are concerned that there is indeed a gaping disconnect between what goes on in the lecture hall and what is expected in newsrooms.

MUTHONI KING’ORI gives details.

J

ournalism training standards in Kenya is a topic that has been debated for a long time. This has been partly fuelled by the rise in the number of schools of journalism in universities and the proliferation of middle-level colleges offering media training. Experts have questioned the capacity of these middle-level colleges, some of which are situated on top of supermarkets and bars, to effectively teach media courses.

Photojournalists at work. the Media Council and the government do not necessarily play the key roles. His fear is that controls from government and the Council may in the long run turn bureaucratic and lock out some genuine trainers.

It is probably in an effort to bridge the gap between the classroom and the industry that some media companies such as Nation Media Group have started programmes where journalism students get extra training to enhance skills they acquired in their universities. The nine month programme targets students from universities across East Africa.

But despite the efforts of these regulating bodies, there are still claims of existence of disconnect between what is taught in the classroom and what is expected by the media industry. The question is does this disconnect really exist and who exactly is to blame for it?

Arguments have also been made to the effect that a good number of these institutions lack the technical capacity, in terms of studios and necessary equipment, to teach these courses. The Media Council of Kenya enforces professional standards by monitoring what these colleges teach. The Council has also developed a curriculum to be used by these colleges. The universities, on their part, are regulated by the Commission for University Education (CUE), which has now also been mandated to regulate public institutions of higher learning.

Ms Susan Kungu, a media trainer who is undertaking a PhD in Communication and Information Studies at the University of Nairobi, says the cause of the problem is the fact that journalism equipment is extremely expensive. She says it is hard for new institutions to equip their studios with all the equipment needed before accreditation by either the CUE or the Council. “For universities without a large capital base, especially private ones, it is an uphill task to expose students to the kind of equipment and work environment that exists in the industry,” she says.

But there are those who think that forced accreditation may not be the way to go. A scholar, Guy Berger, who has written about improving standards of journalism education in Kenya, suggests that instead of the Council and the government trying to control journalism training institutions, the media should instead hire only those journalists trained in institutions they deem credible.

Mr Hiram Mucheke, Director of Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC) says training institutions should not be wholly blamed for gaps in journalism education. “Training institutions don’t run tailor-made courses for media houses.

They give the students skills that enable them to fit into the labour market,” he says. He adds that media houses that detect skill gaps in workers should mount in-house training.

Berger calls for a self-peer-based voluntary accreditation where

The Media Observer July-September 2014

23

journalist education Mr Mucheke also argues that media industry gurus are in most cases usually reluctant to give lectures in training institutions as a way of mentoring aspiring journalists. He further states that media houses are also never enthusiastic to give internships to students.

Regarding curriculum development, Mr Mucheke asserts that KIMC sought industry input when they developed the curriculum they use to teach radio, TV and print courses. He reiterates that the alleged gaps can be sealed through constant interaction between trainers and industry experts. The director, however, emphasises that no training institution can wholly tailor their media courses to meet the demands of a “fluid market which is mainly profit-driven rather than skill-development oriented.”

Another trainer, Dr Faustin Chongombe of St Paul’s University concurs. He argues that universities are doing their best to give students the theoretical and practical aspects of media courses.

He further says some of his students are doing quite well in the industry. “Some supervisors have asked us to send more of our students for attachment in their communication companies because of the good work of those who have previously worked there,” he says. He adds that training institutions cannot be blamed for graduates who fail to utilise the skills they have learnt.

The lecturer adds it is the responsibility of media graduates to learn some skills on the job since it is not everything that can be taught in class.

But while trainers vehemently defend their institutions, industry players stress that there is indeed disconnect between what goes on in the lecture hall and what is expected in newsrooms.

Mr Daniel Korir, an online editor at Citizen TV, says media houses sometimes get very competent graduates who need very little on-the job training. He, however, says some of the media graduates have to be taught everything from writing, taking video and editing. He is doubtful of the quality of the curriculum that some of the colleges use.

interest in current affairs. He says some of these students do not even know who is who in politics and the corporate world. He attributes the problem to a poor reading culture. On social media, the editor argues media students can turn to Twitter and Facebook as important news gathering sources. “Media students should use social media not just to chat with friends but as a tool to facilitate journalism,” he says. He is also of the view that students should be sensitised so that they can dress appropriately in the newsroom. The editor further points out most interns do not have practical skills for live reporting for radio and television. He argues training should include operation of video cameras and editing machines. Korir, however, says all is not lost. He says the increase in the number of journalism training institutions means media and communication is now being taken seriously. This, he says, has enabled media organisations get graduates that have specialised in journalism unlike in the past when they relied on people who had been trained in other areas such as language and education.

A baseline report commissioned by the Media Council of Kenya in 2013 to investigate safety and protection of Kenyan journalists found out that indeed a great number of journalists have benefitted a lot from the increase of journalism schools. The report revealed that 64 per cent of the 282 journalists interviewed had post-secondary education.

Muthoni King’ori teaches Mass Communication at St Paul’s University, Limuru. muthosh4@yahoo.ca

Korir feels that some colleges emphasise more on theory and neglect practice. He says this is reflected in their lack of writing skills. He says that this is further complicated by poor language skills.

The editor adds that a big section of those who go for internship in media organisations are not competent in English and Kiswahili. “Majority of the interns say they can only write in English but not Kiswahili yet the two languages are taught up to high school level,” he says. He proposes that universities should have Kiswahili as one of the courses taught to media students.

Another challenge cited by the editor is that interns seem to lack 24

The Media Observer July-September 2014

regulating media

as they grow

Regulating media training

under Kenya’s new order

PROF BEN SIHANYA argues the industry has historically made compliance with standards worse, essentially by being politically and tribally biased essentially on security and during elections.

I

argue that the Constitution establishes a robust system on freedom of expression and media practice including regulating the training of journalists and other media personalities. The challenge lies in implementing the Constitution and the law through institutional reforms to promote comprehensive training of journalists and related media professionals.

I address three interrelated research questions: First, whether the institutions in place and the laws regulating the media training equip journalists with the relevant skills, knowledge, attitudes, values and innovation required for the profession.

Second, whether the legal framework provides for continuous professional development by media practitioners to ensure compliance with the set code of conduct and keeping them abreast with changes in the world and third, whether training offered by Kenyan institutions meets the expected Kenyan and international standards. There are relevant legal provisions on the standards in media training and practice.

These include the Constitution of Kenya, the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Act and the Media Council Act, No 46 of 2013.

The Constitution of Kenya, 2010, guarantees the freedom of expression as a fundamental human right under Article 33. Every person has a right to seek, receive and impart information. This must be read with Article 34 which outlines the rights of the media and media personalities in Kenya.

Journalism is premised on these freedoms. This freedom is an expansive but not an absolute right (Articles 21, 24, 25). Thus the curriculum and practice must address the constitutional scope of freedom of expression and media freedom.

Under Article 33 (2) freedom of expression may not extend to propaganda for war, incitement to violence, hate speech, advocacy of

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Media laws have recently been repealed by the National Assembly. hatred, ethnic incitement or discrimination. This is part of the constitutional framework under which journalists may operate. Specific statutes, rules and regulations operationalise the provisions of the Constitution. The Media Council Act, 2013 provides for training, registration and accreditation of journalists. To be accredited as a journalist, one has to be registered with the Media Council of Kenya (MCK), under section 6. The Council may only register individuals who meet the requirements. The accreditation of trainers and of media practitioners is still controversial even though Tanzania and Botswana implemented this earlier on. It is felt that such accreditation will limit freedom of expression and access to information: only a few may be journalists; and diversity of materials will be limited. Fairness is crucial.

There is need for training in the profession in order to impart the required special skills on journalists. This is partly to ensure that they adhere to the Constitution and to the Code of Conduct and that the interests of the trained media practitioners are respected. Here, the Media Council Act provides for set criteria which journalists are supposed to comply with in order to be accredited. Currently, the formal training of individuals to join the journalism profession is conducted by various universities and colleges. Typically, an individual would study for a degree or a diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication, or a variant, for a period of two to four years. The content and depth is yet to be standardised. And the industry makes compliance with standards worse, essentially by being politically and tribally partisan, essentially on presidential elections and security.

There is a worrying trend where journalists and most of the media houses fail to comply with the Code of Conduct for the Practice of Journalism under the Media Act. This has been evidenced through lack of balance and diversity of views, including the blatant disregard of human rights such as the right to privacy and disrespect of human dignity by some journalists. Examples are the biased coverage of the 2007 and 2013 presidential elections and the intimidation and self-censorship associated with the media boycott and non-coverage of CORD’s Saba Saba event on July 7, 2014. The media thus infringed the right of others to access information and also acted in concert to undermine competition law.

25

regulating media These and related actions triggered a debate on the extent of exercise of the freedom of expression by the media. There are also concerns regarding the need for continuous professional training and development of journalists to ensure compliance with the code of conduct as set out in the Second Schedule of the Media Council Act, 2013. This training would not only improve the public perception of the media but also provide means by which media personalities may advance their careers.

Article 43(1) (f) of the Constitution states that every person has a right to education, and this right applies to persons who wish to join the journalism profession. The State has a duty in the fulfillment of this right to education by enhancing resources and quality in public institutions which offer diplomas or degrees in journalism. Private institutions have also taken up an active role in providing media education. There are numerous institutions that offer formal training for individuals who wish to join the journalism profession. These include the University of Nairobi, Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC), Multimedia University, East African School of Media Studies and Foundation College of Professional Studies, among others. These institutions are accredited by MCK, to provide professional training of journalists. Sections 6 and 47 of the Media Council Act, 2013, mandate education institutions to be accredited before offering any training in journalism. The institutions have to comply with standards as set by the Council. These standards require compliance with Kenyan and international practices in the profession.

What about the content of the curriculum? Education institutions train on several fields of journalism and communication. The University of Nairobi, for example, trains on broadcast journalism and print journalism. Their curriculum content focuses on editing and desktop publishing, feature writing, online journalism, media and conflict resolution, and investigative journalism. Others are advanced photojournalism, critical review and writing, reporting on sports, drama and documentary production, media and gender, religious and educational broadcasting, among others.

The various other institutions offering training in journalism tend to focus mainly on the same thematic areas, namely print and broadcast journalism. KIMC, for example, also focuses on print and broadcast journalism. The curriculum focuses on imparting relevant skills to the trainees preparing them for the world of work. Majorly, the curriculum for training in journalism achieves the objective of imbuing the trainees with the relevant skills and knowledge required.

There has been debate on how to integrate the theory taught in the colleges and the practical application emphasised in the industry. Some argue that media training in Kenya has been influenced by the American and UK models. That media studies are supported by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) which borrowed its structure and system from the American model. And Kenya’s education and training has generally been based on the UK. The American and South African influences are deep as evidenced in Articles 33, 34 and 35, respectively. The freedom of the media is provided for in the US Constitution, under the First Amendment.

26

As compared to Kenya, the US has a more developed media training system in terms of quality, quantity and regulatory framework. In a survey carried out in 2002 and reported by Art Silverbatt, there were approximately 61 institutions of higher education in the US offering media literacy curricula. The number of certified institutions (per capita) qualified to offer media training is much larger than in Kenya.

Media in the US includes television, video, print and broadcast journalism, radio and other forms of media. Social media standards on training and practice are also being developed. Compared to America, the number of media courses available in Kenya is limited. Courses such as film and media studies, communication studies, film and media production are very popular among top universities in America. Students pursue a Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral (PhD) degrees in media studies. The professors are primarily scholars who have studied media from a critical and diverse viewpoint. These include media professionals.

Kenya has borrowed heavily from the Constitution of South Africa on the freedom of expression. This is particularly with regards to the promotion, protection and limitation of the freedom of expression. But the Jubilee administration appears to be undermining the establishment of an independent body mandated to regulate the media fraternity under the Constitution, the Acts and the Code. Relatedly, the South African Electronic Communications Act of 2005 mandates the media to give equal treatment to all political parties where the media house seeks to voluntarily cover the political advertisement of a certain political party.

This provision ensures that the media does not abuse its discretion resulting in biased coverage.

First, resources are required to ensure training that bridges the gap between theory learned in the classroom and the practice. Second, the Code of Conduct for the practice of journalism and the media should be complied with. The media must stop infringing the rights of others as enshrined in the Constitution. The media must (accurately) report and (fairly) analyse all matters of public interest, including the ongoing debates on ICC trials, security, land, electoral fraud, ethnicisation of government and the referendum.

Third, the accreditation of journalists needs to be streamlined to ensure the freedom of expression and access to information of the media personalities and journalists is not limited.

The State, the media personalities and journalists need to take up an active role in implementing the Constitution and the relevant statutes, rules, regulations and codes. Appropriate training on and the practice of freedom of expression and media freedom are central to the enjoyment of other rights under the Constitution.

Prof Ben Sihanya is a scholar, Intellectual Property, Constitutional Democracy & Education Law at the University of Nairobi’s Law School and Professor-in-residence, Public Intellectual, Mentor, Poet and Advocate at Sihanya Mentoring & Innovative Lawyering. sihanyamentoring@gmail.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

regulating media

Reality check:

What ails Kenya’s media training As ABIUD ONYACH argues, ‘moonlighting’ by lecturers, lack of practical experience by the trainers and the mushrooming of moneyminded institutions are part of the wider crisis.

I

n April 2010, the organisers of “10,000 words-where journalism and tech meet” asked media educators to respond in a hundred words or less why journalism education is important. The winner, Chris Waugaman, a teacher and adviser to The Royal News at Prince George High School in Virginia responded thus: “The purpose of education is to make our young citizens better people. So how do we do that? We teach them to be empathetic. We teach them to listen to others. We teach them to understand how to communicate with each other. We teach them to be ethical in their actions. We teach them to consider both sides of an argument. We teach them to adapt to the changing world around them. We teach them to view the world through a different lens. We teach them… journalism.”

His response is captivating because it summarised what should encompass a well trained journalist as follows: Strong personal values/observes journalistic Code of Conduct; good communication and listening skills; objective reporting and innovation.

In Kenya, these qualities have been waning among journalists.

There have been a number of court cases on libel, defamation or outright sleazy reporting. Indeed, a Media Council report also realised a “worrying trend of non-adherence to the code of conduct for the practice of journalism”. These cases, no doubt, point to a serious problem in the profession.

Teething drawbacks Reasons for the poorly trained journalists have been presented

The Media Observer July-September 2014

on mainly three fronts: One, poorly structured middle-level colleges with no learning infrastructure or academic ambiance.

The second is the little matter of ‘moonlighting’ and the third is media trainers, who have no practical experience in what they teach. And last but not least is the academic inconsistency of the media trainers, particularly inconsistency in the areas of specialisation.

In the last five years, the media, print and broadcast, have focused a negative light on colleges that seem to be sprouting everywhere in the Central Business District. The arguments brought forth are that these buildings-come campuses while convenient to evening programme students, are not good for a fulltime student because of the environmental noise it presents to the learner in the form of chaos that accompanies such a metropolis, not to mention the unexpected riots or demonstrations. Generally, the ambiance is not fit for the much-needed concentration and most importantly, the institution may not have adequate space for teaching let alone setting up a functional studio.

The other argument fronted as affecting quality of training, especially by students is the moonlighting issue that lecturers have so openly embraced. According to a research done by Dr Peter Mageto (Daystar University) on Corporate and Personal Ethics for Sustainable Development: Experiences, Challenges and Promises of Part-time Teaching in selected universities in Kenya, majority of students sampled from the local universities (70.7 per cent) feel that “their university must develop a policy on part-time lecturers to curb the deteriorating academic standards.” The research further reveals most of the lecturers engaged in part-time classes for financial gain.

Dr Penina Ogada, a lecturer at the university of Nairobi, offered to a Daily Nation reporter on May 15 2009 that: “We need to survive. Educationists are not given resources. Universities are, therefore, turned into money making markets. It is like hawking.” This only underscores further the point, that the 27

reality check training within a reasonable distance from the workplace of the potential student.

Journalists covering a past Media Council of Kenya event. idea is not based on training but monetary.

Dr Mageto’s research further reveals that most students feel frustrated when attempting to reach the part-time lecturers for academic direction and may end up making poor choices.

Lastly, the other challenge is the negligence for lack of a better word - by the employers or media training institutions to consider with interest, the applicant’s academic consistency with relation to areas of specialization, particularly the relationship between the undergraduate and the subsequent master degree or PhD. The free primary (and later secondary) education led to a higher number of students finishing Form Four, while there are fewer institutions of higher learning. This has provided the middle-level colleges with the much-needed numbers to maintain operational costs.

The same is true of those teaching at the university level. The same factors influenced the double intake in most universities.

It’s this appetite for education that has made the pedagogy business lucrative and thereby eroded the very intention of the exercise. This reality has led to frenzy, so much that a master’s programme has become the “must do” thing. Scholars have therefore jumped ship on several occasions opting to master in a programme outside their undergraduate field because it’s more marketable.

This further underscores, unfortunately, that scholars taking masters programmes are mostly motivated by the market trends as opposed to growth or desire to be an expert in a particular field.

Way Forward in Training Firstly, the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) and Commission for University Education (CUE) should come up with parameters that would allow an institution to be based in the CBD as well as the capacity of the applying institution to run a quality programme within the area. This will help winnow out masqueraders from those offering the much-needed 28

Secondly, part-timing can be practiced in a “safe mode”. As noted by a Kenyatta University Deputy Vice Chancellor in the Daily Nation: “As long as it is planned properly, offering evening programmes and distant learning are no big deal. We still have a small population of universities. We need to put up infrastructure to meet the demand.”

Media training institutions should take an active role in ensuring they do not have people with the minimal requirement (which is a masters degree) but that the candidates can actually deliver on the units given to them. This can be done by introducing practical assessment exercises during interviews to ensure the resume agrees with the potential, otherwise we shall have many masqueraders on our lecture halls.

Avenues of professionalising the media Some of the ways to professionalisation in the media include organising workshops for media trainers and editors. This helps a lot in brainstorming the challenges faced by both parties and making solid resolutions. These workshops also provide additional skills that the trainers could apply back in class. Another area would be to come up with strict guidelines on who should have the title of a journalist. While it’s commendable the Media Council and media trainers helped develop a curriculum, there is no clear definition of the person who practices journalism. In the same line of thought, it is vital to lobby MPs to sponsor a Bill on minimum requirement that outlaws masqueraders.

Lastly, the media trainers who have never been in a newsroom should make a point of volunteering their time when free to engage editors and reporters and possibly publish or be part of a production team.

This will help greatly in ensuring they connect their notes and the industry needs and provide the student with the right material. This is becoming a common practice even in the Europe and America.

For instance, a journalism professor at Howard University, Yolanda McCutchens, is planning to change how she lectures Introduction to Broadcast Journalism after she participated in a programme “Back in the Newsroom” run by the International Centre for Journalists. According to Nieman Journalism Lab, this was despite the fact that she had worked as a broadcast journalist before. The argument here is that, a little refresher course goes a long way in making people the best trainers they can be.

Abiud Onyach is a former Head of School, Media Arts and Design at Zetech College. onyach@gmail.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

The Hungry Watchdog

Intrigues of Corruption in the media Where graft thrives, there can never be anything like public interest. What matters is the interest of the individual reporter or editor and the culprits whose interests are being taken care of. OTSIENO NAMWAYA looks at the scenario.

I

n October 2010, The ET Magazine published an unusual story.

The story, sponsored by AfriCOG, a Nairobi-based NGO, revealed pervading corruption in the Kenyan media. For years, focus has been on the only best known form of corruption in the media – the brown envelope journalism, where news reporters have made a tradition out of receiving money at press conferences, commonly handed down in brown envelopes.

News sources that don’t honour that tradition are simply blacked out, and future press conferences by such news makers are sure to be given a miss by Kenya’s increasingly demanding reporters.

Those who honour the tradition, on the other hand, are given lots of broadcast airtime and newspaper space even when what they are saying lacks substance, or even relevance.

It would, however, be a mistake to imply that brown envelope is the only form of corruption in the media; or that reporters are the epitome of corruption within the Fourth Estate; or even that they are defying odds to practice what their bosses regularly frown upon. They merely have or still are learning the ropes of corruption in the sector and, like a junior police officer who collects KSh 100 to let go of an offender or destroy a case file, the reporters

The Media Observer July-September 2014

do the hatchet job for the moneyed and most influential public figures with lots of dirty linen to throw under the carpet. The reporters could be crass, crude, unethical and at times, violent in their pursuit of this brown envelop tradition, but they are clearly not the biggest problem the Kenyan media faces today.

For, with just a slight show of seriousness by the managers and owners of mainstream media, the brown envelope tradition could be wiped out in a flash. It is the most public form of corruption ever known in any sector in Kenya, or anywhere in the world, after all and thus requires little investigation to unearth. In any case, those who pay brown envelopes – and nearly every newsmaker in Kenya today, including the civil society, dishes out the brown envelope – are bosom buddies of either senior editors or media owners and the stories of brown envelopes are shared freely and generously.

In other words, brown envelopes at press conferences are what drinks are at cocktail parties. Every honest editor I have discussed the matter with has admitted with a clear conscience: we know that this is happening, but journalists are not to blame. The mistake is of those who give the brown envelopes in the first place. Well, respected journalist Joe Khamisi, who is among the few public figures to admit in his book that politicians pay journalists to get even the minutest forms of coverage, will tell you this kind of thinking is escapist and avoids confronting what is arguably the biggest problem in the sector today.

So, if this problem this big and openly practiced, why has it been difficult for a media that prides itself as the conscience of society to deal with it? There are many reasons, some of which are systemic. But the most glaring reason is this: brown envelope is not the only form of corruption, not even the worst form of corruption, in the media today. Besides, reporters are not the most corrupt of the pack. The problem starts at the top and thus none of the managers has the moral standing to crack the whip. A section of the managers uses the junior reporters to collect the “cut” while still other managers are known to be on regular “retainers” from news sources. If this isn’t unethical, then nothing really is.

While it is true that there are some very respectable editors/ managers whose credibility is, like Ceasar’s wife, beyound reproach, their would – be high standing is diminished by this

29

The Hungry Watchdog corruption. While investigating the corruption story that was eventually published in October 2010 by the ET Magazine, I heard some very unbelievable stories about what some managers/ editors do to get some extra cash. I had, of course, heard or even witnessed some worrying things as a journalist in various media houses in Kenya.

One journalist told me that I was “stupid” and “naïve” not to have a rich newsmaker I could turn to any time I was broke for monetary nourishment. Another journalist offered to be collecting bribes on my behalf if I did not know how to do it. As an investigative editor, one journalist wondered why I wasn’t rich and yet all editors had money taps everywhere. Junior writers who earned less than half my salary, another journalist taunted me, were richer than I. In the most awkward incident I remember, a colleague approached me with KSh 5,000 from a manager I had just interviewed at a key parastatal “because you refused even to take tea” and in return, I was supposed to drop the story. In the same incident, a senior media manager called my managing editor and wondered why I had abandoned Ksh 300,000 that was supposed to have been given to me by the top manager at the parastatal.

the managers uses A section of the to collect the “cut” junior reportersmanagers are known while still other ar “retainers” from to be on regul this isn’t unethical, news sources. If ally is then nothing re A week later, at a top management meeting, the same senior media manager suggested that I should be sacked for writing negative stories about the parastatal yet the fund was one of the company’s highest advertisers. Had that proposal been adopted, I would probably have left the company much earlier than I did.

But I lived to encounter several other incidents.

The experience shows that brown envelope, as bad as it is, is not the worst form of corruption in the media. Shockingly, there are editors who spiked stories because of sex or ethnic allegiance.

Editors who haunted reporters in the newsroom about press conferences they had attended, how much they had been paid and where the editor’s cut went. How election period is a cash cow for political writers and editors. The media cartels that control court and parliamentary news. In other words, is the news to which the audience is served daily really that objective, fair, frank and independently sources? Is it all the news there?

Perhaps the most fascinating story was how the media became complicit in the controversial 2007 General Election. Which editor drafted the government statement banning live coverage and airing of election results? Which editors attended the meeting with top government officials just before the winner of the presidential election was irregularly announced and what were they told or offered? This is a story that remains to be written and 30

when the truth comes out, it shall be clear just how this “public watchdog” is no more than a hungry dog to be watched over.

Effects of media corruption There is no doubt corruption has serious effects on the work of the media anywhere in the world. The immediate casualties are objectivity and balance. It is of course impossible to achieve absolute objectivity in stories even in an environment where corruption is absent, but it is at least possible to realise some balance in reporting. With corruption, however, the levels of objectivity drop drastically even among those media houses that traditionally pride themselves as being “objective” and “independent”.

Story balance is without doubt lost completely. It must be noted that balance is never about calling the subject to “respond” long after you decided to publish the story anyway. It is about going an extra mile to establish whether what you are publishing is truthful or sheer fabrication being pushed by partisan interests. The reverse is also true: going an extra mile to establish whether what you are spiking simply because so and so has not responded is actually inaccurate or accurate. How many editors put reporters under pressure to ensure that so and so is interviewed for that story, and then proceed to spike the story because the so and so could not be reached, yet the same editor secretly talked to the so and so advised him/her not to respond to questions by the reporter?

Eva We all moan when theMunyao truth is lost because of sheer corruption.

As a public watchdog, the work of the media is of course guided by public interest. Exposing corruption, for example, is no doubt in public interest even if it annoys some influential people. But in a media environment where corruption rules, there is nothing like public interest. All that matters is the interest of the individual journalist and the culprits whose misdeeds are being concealed.

Then there is a small matter, as an effect of corruption in the media, which might worry the academics, but one that is very annoying to the media practitioners – ethics. It is easy to teach in journalism schools that corruption is not ethical or to tell a group of journalists at a workshop or seminar that corruption goes against the journalism code of conduct. The practice of it is, however, difficult as we know in Kenya: how do you tell a journalist who went to cover an event in the remote parts of the world without enough fare not to hike a lift from a news source? Or, still, how do you tell a journalist who is underpaid not to take – nay, demand – money from a news source? In other words, one of the most disturbing effects of corruption in Kenya is that the journalism code of conduct is not adhered to.

Otsieno Namwaya , a former journalist, is a researcher at Human Rights Watch. He is also a member of the Editorial Board of the Media Observer magazine. onamwaya@hotmail.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Slaying the dragon

Slaying the dragon of ‘envelopmental’ journalism Some journalists are not even on retainer, and even where they are paid, the allowance it is not enough to sustain them, making them more susceptible to the culture of brown envelopes. DOROTHY KWEYU discusses this sticky issue.

I

n July, I was taken aback when at the beginning of an interview an editor had assigned me, the principal interviewee (there were two senior officers), asked what I would be charging the institution.

Why was I taken aback? It was because I wondered why I should be charging extra fees for a story that was not only of national importance, but which was initiated by my newspaper rather than the source. I assured the officers that there was absolutely no charge and the interview continued. Perhaps I should not have been so surprised if a recent chat I had with Daily Nation News Editor Eric Shimoli had come before. The editor paints a sad picture of integrity or lack of it thereof among Kenyan journalists, an opinion he shares with the Editors Guild Treasurer, Mr Arthur Okwemba, who is also the Executive Director of the African Woman and Child Feature Service (AWC).

Engaging them separately provoked memories of my early years in journalism. Back then, there was no Media Council of Kenya, whose Clause 10 of the Code of Conduct sub-titled, Paying for News and Articles, states: “When money is paid for information, serious questions can be raised about the credibility of that information and the motives of the buyer and seller. Therefore, in principle, journalists should not receive any money as an incentive to publish any information.”

I remember seeking my editor-in-chief’s audience after interviewing a source he had sent to me. At the end of the interview, the gentleman forked out KSh 300 – nearly 10 per cent of my salary then. It was for ‘chai’ (tea), he said, to which I replied that I was on The Nation’s payroll. My plea to the boss was to please tell news sources that I was an employee of The

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Nation and I did not need inducement to do my editor’s bidding.

But that was nothing compared to the huge goat a Cabinet minister gave me after covering development in his constituency. I was in the company of the head of the then Women’s Bureau at that time, who was also got a gift of a goat.

I declined the goat, to the minister’s great consternation, a sign that it was normal for him to give such gifts, which, with the advantage of hindsight, may have been really nothing for a senior member of the Maasai community. Being so senior in government and I so junior in the media, I preferred not to go into too much explanation as to why I would not take the goat, only saying, ‘No, thank you, Sir!’ I don’t recall being handed any document to guide my conduct in such situations upon my first employment at The Nation back in February 1979, but my conscience told me it was wrong to accept gifts of whatever nature for doing what I was hired to do.

Actually, the Nation Media Group’s gift policy is pretty young.

Signed by the Group Chief Executive Officer on November 14, 2008, the policy acknowledges “that staff will periodically receive gift items from business partners as an appreciation for their service and to mark special occasions.”

While recognising such appreciation as good for the company “and for the morale of the receiving staff”, the policy has a caveat: that the gifts must not be of such high value or frequency as to raise “questions as to whether such gestures would not influence the decision taken by a staff member favouring a particular business partner.”

To be completely transparent and compliant with the NMG Code of Conduct, the gifts must be entered in a gift register, “which should be in the custody of the administration assistant of each department”.

An inquiry with the departmental assistant indicated that the register was only used during the Christmas season, raising questions about the potentially many more’ gifts’ staff receive during the rest of the year. The register details must include the recipient’s name, the source of the gift, its type and estimated value.

31

Slaying the dragon The next step is for management to decide how to dispose of it. “This will depend on the value of the gift, the nature of it (whether it can be seen to be compromising), the use of the gift and how frequent (sic) the recipient has received gifts from the particular supplier/various other suppliers.”

For a beat journalist, I suppose that ‘supplier’ could be substituted with news source.

The gift will be forwarded to the recipient if it has a value of less than KSh 3,000 and if the particular supplier (read source for journalists) has not offered him or her a similar gift over the last six months.

On the other hand, the company will retain the gift whose value is “very close to a cash gift” such that it makes it possible to transfer it to a charity or to some other use. “The value of gift vouchers in excess of KSh 2,000 will be retained. Volume of gifts if high can also lead to retention,” the gift policy states.

Gifts of such high value or volume as to render them difficult to transfer elsewhere, such as engraved pens, watches, jewellery or alcohol may be bought back by the recipient at 50 per cent of their value for donation to a charity of the department’s choice. A gift disposal option that the NMG considers to be of last resort is returning to sender. This is “where a gift is seen to be highly compromising because of its nature, value e.g a paid up foreign trip to senior manager, or expensive club membership, cars, electronic equipments, expensive cell phones etc. This is especially where the sender is known to expect a particular favour, high in financial value. A letter explaining our policy would also be written to the sender.”

That the NMG had to come up with such an elaborate list suggests that since the dinosaur era (read the 1980s when I was young in the profession and the gifts were less sophisticated), things have changed so much as to provide food for thought that led to the crafting of the gift policy.

But policy is one thing and practice quite another as my interactions with Mr Shimoli and Mr Okwemba revealed. The challenge is that not all gifts can be registered; their often surreptitious nature – like cash (the brown envelope) or gift voucher – renders them impossible to track and nick. Mr Shimoli is all too familiar with callers who offer “transport and lunch for your team” in exchange for news coverage. “I

32

tell them that I have departmental cars,” he told the Media Observer. “NMG makes profits in billions of shillings, so why would we fall for transport and lunch?” The news editor notes that such offers have become the rule rather than the exception, “which is really a tragedy”. “I’ve had to tell callers that if that (lunch and transport) is the reason we should cover them, then we will not cover their function as it is in conflict with The Nation’s gift policy.” The exception is a function, say at the Serena, and “lunch finds you there,” he says.

While that may be so within the hallowed precincts of the socalled ‘twin towers’, Mr Okwemba has a different story to tell about the reality in the field. According to him, sources will always size you up before they even start the ‘chai’ conversation. He was once offered KSh 15,000 for ‘lunch’ in circumstances he considered compromising.

“I told him that where I come from, we are given money for lunch,” he said.

Levels of corruption, the AWC boss says, depend on who you are in the media. As a regular contributor for The Nation, he is aware that the media house has in the past “come out very strongly” and published notices in its newspapers warning the public against fake reporters who would solicit bribes from them. They should report anyone asking for cash to cover them, evidence that corruption is rife in the media and especially among the lowly-paid correspondents striving to make ends meet. Some of them are not even on retainer, and even where they are paid, the allowance it is not enough to sustain them, making them venal to the brown envelope.

Without imputing any ill conduct to the journalists, Mr Okwemba queried a recent accident involving a group of journalists in a governor’s car. How did the journalists linked to different media houses end up in one car? How come they did not use the official vehicles of their companies or at least hire taxis for reimbursement by their employers?

“After riding in the governor’s car, would I be expected to write anything negative about him?” he posed and blamed media houses for fuelling corruption by neglecting their correspondents.

Ms Kweyu is Revise Editor, Daily Nation. She has written this article in her personal capacity. dmusopole@yahoo.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

graft in the media

Why GRAFT in the media is the

elephant in the room By failing to shine the light on their own scandals of corruption and exploitation, CATHERINE GICHERU explains, the media is losing its moral high ground to point out similar vices in other spheres of society.

C

orruption in Kenya is a cancer found in almost every major institution and at every level of society.

The media, which is supposed to hold government institutions to account, by ‘speaking truth’ has itself become infected by the corruption virus. Instead of exposing corruption in government, some journalists, and indeed some media outlets, have become the megaphones of corrupt officials in government and the corporate sector, and continue to feed the public with half-truths and in some instances, outright misinformation.

Some journalists have become what former New York Times chief of staff and Senior Managing Editor John Swinton described as “intellectual prostitutes” who are willing to “destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon” and to be the “toils and the vassals of rich men behind the scenes.”

It is unfair that corruption is eclipsing the good things the media are doing such as exposing the vice in the broader society, human rights abuses, electoral fraud, highlighting development efforts among others. I hasten to add it is not all journalists who have reduced themselves to “intellectual prostitutes.” There are, however, a number of them, including in the high echelons of gate-keeping, who have decided to turn their back on professional ethics. Although journalists have a responsibility to

The Media Observer July-September 2014

report what they feel is in public interest, they also have guidelines to adhere to. Journalists are expected to respect the truth and the public’s right to information.

Corruption in the media takes various forms— from the ‘brown envelope’ phenomena which goes by various names in different countries. This kind of ‘grassroots editing’ takes the form of cash handouts, free alcohol or all-paid-for-trips given by sources and conference organisers to journalists. They call it ‘transport’ or ‘lunch money’ to thank them for their ‘support.’ It is only the rare journalist who recognises these as a bribe and declines them.

This vice has become so pervasive that many organisations and event organisers now include this ‘assistance to media’ as a legitimate expense in their budgets. Sometimes, journalists and editors are given ‘brown envelopes’ to tweak a story in a certain way to favour the person giving the ‘incentive’ or to ensure the already tweaked report is the version that gets published.

Another manifestation of media corruption is the issue of freebies or ‘presents’ to journalists. Previously, these used to be simple items of little value such as pens, diaries, T-shirts and coffee mugs engraved with a company’s logo or institution’s insignia. The trend has since evolved to where the value of the items has been going up. It is now common for journalists to get presents such as smart phones, cameras and laptops. At the mid and upper-level, corruption is more sophisticated and the value of the gifts range from school fees, holidays, air-tickets, dinner, free accommodation at holiday resorts, vehicles and even land. Some years ago, a mid-level editor was given a Mercedes Benz as a gift by a grateful newsmaker. For all intents and purposes, the newsmaker has succeeded in turning this mid-level editor into his personal lapdog.

33

graft in the media In yet another incident, a reporter was offered an acre of land in Karen in order not to follow through on a scandal involving a top government official. To his credit, the journalist turned down the ‘gift’ and went ahead to pursue the story. However, the intensity with which the story was pursued was muted and it tapered off after a few stories. Other forms of corruption include sponsored trips, either on assignment or for leisure which many journalists have come to consider as perks of their jobs. While it is in the interest of the ‘sponsoring’ organisation to take along a journalist or two for a trip, many of the journalists do not make this clear in their articles, thereby blurring the line between what is news and what is essentially advertorial material. In some instances, press releases or statements issued by newsmakers or corporates are presented as ‘news’ without any form of interrogation of the content and after some form of ‘inducement.” In one instance, a local newspaper carried four pages of what was essentially advertorial material which was passed off as ‘news’ to its unsuspecting readers.

The exclusive beats that some journalists enjoy have also become a minefield for corruption. Two of the beats which have for decades been shrouded with reports of corruption include the courts and crime. For many reporters assigned to the courts, the first thing they realise is how lawyers, litigants, court officials and even prosecutors seek them out and offer inducement to either report or not report on court cases.

Indeed, it has become too common to have one side of a dispute highlighted to the detriment of the other party or parties. Some lawyers have been known to seek out reporters and ‘persuade’ them not to report on cases involving their clients. Instead of reporting on the cases, some of the journalists will make their presence known to the litigants or their lawyers and demand payment not to report the case. The irony of this is that the editor and news editor are not even aware of this potential story.

But it is not only reporters who are caught up in this mess, court photographers too are ‘persuaded’ not to submit photos they have taken of prominent individuals and/or litigants in the dock.

For decades, security agencies and particularly the police, have had ‘journalists’ on their payrolls as informers or to ensure they counter negative reports about individuals or institutions in the security services. Afraid to lose their contacts in the police and security services, some journalists on the beat have been known to receive monetary consideration not to report negatively on these individuals or institutions or when they do so, they put out the spin they have been fed by their ‘sources’ who invariably are involved. Apart from monetary rewards, the ‘beat journalists’ are also assured of getting a ‘scoop’ once in a while to keep them happy. The resulting familiarity between the beat journalists and the newsmakers/sources gives the latter the authority to set the rules of engagement, the tone, pace, and sometimes, the prominence of the story.

Another form of corruption is the recruitment at a monthly 34

reward, of reporters who serve as ‘agents or spies’ of individuals or institutions with vested interests. These reporters spy on their colleagues and give those who are paying them a heads-up on stories before publication. But corruption is also not limited to low and middle-level media practitioners alone. There is growing pressure on media outlets to provide positive coverage to big corporate and government advertisers. Those who stick to professionalism and refuse to be cowed by these advertising pressures receive few advertising if at all, or are denied such support. Some media owners and top-level editors are guilty of allowing these pressures to percolate to the newsroom, leading to unnecessary self-censorship.

In a country where corruption and patron-client networks abound, it is not only politicians who want to be presented in good light and hence the current situation where corporate bodies are themselves ‘paying’ for positive coverage and using their advertising muscle to influence media houses and journalists. As corruption becomes ‘acceptable’, it has become common for journalists to write articles and profiles in such a way that seems to idolise corrupt politicians and businesspeople instead of faulting them for their dishonest dealings and practises. While many journalists recognise they have a role in building a democratic society, this is greatly diminished if they are compromised. The media cannot be watchdogs if they are afraid to investigate stories of corruption within their own organisations. It is because of such lapses that those in authority have sought to introduce new or revive laws that seek to emasculate the media by concentrating on its weaknesses.

Allegations of corruption in the media remain rumours. It is difficult to prove corruption and even though there may be complaints about such, most media houses sweep it under the carpet or occasionally put out warnings and appeals to the public to file complaints. By failing to shine the light on their own scandals of corruption and exploitation, the media is losing its moral high ground to point out similar vices in other spheres of society. Unless it cleans up its act and stops voicing the interests of corrupt elements in government and the corporate world, the media will fail in its responsibility of holding these institutions to check.

So, what needs to be done? Instead of focusing on the government as the greatest threat to the profession, journalists need to deal with those whose behaviour is contrary to the code of ethics and conduct. One of the main reasons why petty corruption is rife especially among the low level cadre of journalists is the fact that many of them are poorly paid, have no medical or other benefits and the transient nature of their employment means they cannot even access. Media houses must also be financially sustainable to shield themselves from political and commercial pressures.

Catherine Gicheru is a veteran journalist. cgicheru@gmail.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Tough call: TIME TO bridge the ethical gaps Although media profitability and commercialisation are some of the fundamentals ignored when training on the code of ethics is undertaken, it is the duty of every journalist to uphold professionalism regardless of the industry challenges, writes AMOS KIBET.

J

on Stewart, a writer, producer and actor in America once stated that the bias of the mainstream media is towards sensationalism, conflict, unethical journalism and laziness. His statement attributes the conspicuous ethical oddities to general misconduct and misbehavior in journalism. In Kenya, this is a frequent reality witnessed and documented by the Media Council.

The broken link between ethical journalism and training of journalists is a glaring reality evidenced through numerous complaints to the Complaints Commission of the Media Council. Additionally, the media monitoring unit of the Media Council issues ethical advisories to various journalists and media houses from time to time. As the consistent stream of complaints are received by the Council, there is need to question the discrepancy between training of journalists and poor ethical conduct and unprofessionalism.

While training in some of the journalism colleges in Kenya may not be comprehensive, the Media Council and media houses have corroborated this aspect of professionalism. It is important to acquire a general comprehension of the environment under which journalists operate in Kenya because it shapes and guides their ethical and professional performance.

Al Franken admits that the biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They’re about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover. There are various factors that influence choices that a journalist makes with regards to the code of conduct.

Such factors include personal values and believes, previous experience, prevalent circumstances and situations, editorial

The Media Observer July-September 2014

policies and media house culture, among many such factors. It should, however, be noted that ethical conduct is not the responsibility of journalists alone. Interesting to note is that the best media managers and owners are interested not just in good and profitable media products dissemination, but also in high quality content bedecked by high level of adherence to journalistic code of conduct. The influence of media profitability and the invincible forces of commercialisation are some of the elements that are ignored when media training on the code of ethics is undertaken.

As an industry, the media in Kenya faces challenges that are social, political, and commercial. The environment is fiercely competitive, and just like the world over, Kenya is a place where events have been unfolding at an unprecedented pace.

The demands from the consumers of the media to be constantly fed with information that is accurate and current, puts additional pressures on the media practitioners. They have to work very hard at balancing the demands of their trade while remaining within the confines of ethics, which is what journalism is all about. However, in the pursuit of such balancing and efficacy, violations to the Code of Conduct are gravely executed. Scoop journalism which is an element of competitive news production and dissemination has left little room for journalist to confirm and re-confirm their facts before publication. This equally is an element of practical, everyday journalism and newsroom reality that is not clearly envisaged when training journalist on the code of conduct.

Dr Damian Tambini, a lecturer at Media and Communications 35

tough call Department at the London School of Economics thinks that adherence or otherwise to the code of conduct for journalism ethics comes down to individual conscience and integrity.

This, of course, raises the problem of ‘human error’. Not everyone is a saint, and given the frequency of ethical failure, we have to accept that there are various incentives at work, not all of which spur journalists to act within the rules. Some see it as a legal necessity to act ethically. But in Europe, at least the law tends to police only the outer reaches of what is appropriate reporting. Journalism ethics sets a higher standard. Most ethical codes go beyond ‘not breaking the law’ to outline a social role for public interest journalism. The definition of what constitutes public interest is a tower of confusion which many editors have sheltered upon when they do blatant ethical violations. The discussion often shifts to what constitutes public interest and what are the guidelines for determining ethical journalism in line with this aspect of reporting.

John Richard Pilger, an Australian journalist and documentary maker thinks it is not enough for journalists to see themselves as mere messengers without understanding the hidden agenda of the message and the myths that surround it.

Stephen Ward, the founder of Centre for Journalism Ethics in support of Pilger argues that ethics is the analysis, evaluation and promotion of what constitutes correct conduct and virtuous character in light of the best available principles.

Ethics, argues Ward, does not simply ask how to live well. It asks how we should live well ethically, that is, in goodness and in right relation with each other, a task that may require us to forego personal benefits, to carry out duties or to endure persecution. Ethical reasoning is about how people interpret, balance and modify their principles in light of new facts, new technology, and new social conditions. This explanation by

36

Ward perhaps mirrors ethical journalism as one of the most idealistic principles of professional behavior which journalists find impossible to adhere to. If ethics requires us to forego personal benefits, carry out our duties without murmur and endure persecution, then we can consider that such elements of ethics are not trained in conventional academic courses.

The scope and boundaries of ethics change constantly. It can therefore be termed as a dynamic aspect of professional evolution. This dynamism is informed by the fact that a journalist, like any other professional, operate in a constantly changing environment defined by political, cultural, technological and economic factors. Defining what is ethical therefore involves a dynamic process of inventing, applying and critiquing the principles that guide human interaction, define social roles and justify institutional structures. The discrepancy between what is practical journalism and what is laid down in the Code of Conduct presents professional regulators with tremendous challenges.

That said, journalism can only be recognised as a profession if it has ethical standards, professional training that enables a prospective practitioner or professional to acquire a body of theoretical knowledge, a set of skills, cultivate the necessary qualities and finally go through a rigorous process of practical experience or internship before graduation. It is the duty of every journalist to strive to maintain professionalism and the Code of Conduct regardless of the challenges that prevail in the industry. This is because the good of the society is dependent on the careful reporting and reflection of the society in a professional manner that enhances greater good.

Amos Kibet is the Research & Media Monitoring Officer at the Media Council of Kenya.

Kibet.amos@mediacouncil.or.ke

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Which way for

journalism training in Kenya?

Even in places where journalists are expected to play a major role in development by studying what is now commonly accepted as development Journalism, the goals of training cannot be adequately achieved without specialisation.

JOE KADHI delves into the debate.

K

enya’s journalism scholars who have been agitating for more diversified specialisation programmes in the training of journalism must have added a lot of ammunition to their school of thought when the coverage of two major recent events by almost all media institutions proved them right. The two completely different and unrelated events were the announcement of the discovery of oil in Kenya a couple of years ago and the terrorist attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi on September 21, 2013.

In both events, journalists were rightly guided by the news value of timeliness and tried to scoop one another with what they thought were exclusive stories about the discovery as well as about the terror attack. Unfortunately in doing so, they walked where angels fear to tread and unwittingly came up with fairly unethical ways of presenting stories of disaster and trauma in the case of the Westgate attack; and highly exaggerated stories on extractive industry in case of the oil discovery.

These professional slips led the Media Council of Kenya to conduct urgent short courses on the coverage of disasters and trauma down at the Coast and, joined by the UNDP, engage in intensive training of reporters and their editors in short courses on extractive industries which took place in Kwale, Kitui, Turkana and Elementaita. Though extremely useful, the short courses, of course, could not take the place of regular programmes at the universities where professional journalists are trained on areas of specialisation.

Needless to say, many universities in Kenya where journalism is taught are probably now revising their curricular to include areas of specialisation in covering disasters and trauma as well as in covering the extractive industries among other areas. After all, highly respected journalism scholars such as Manuel Castells and Michael Parks of University of Southern California joined by Bregtje Van Der Haak of VPRO Television in The Netherlands believe that in a technology-driven process of accelerated change, journalism is being transformed in the ways that it is produced, distributed, and used.

The Media Observer July-September 2014

In a highly thought provoking article published in Volume 6 of The International Journal of Communication of 2012, the three scholars claim they are witnessing the emergence of new tools and practices, phenomena that are yielding both a flurry of new ways to produce information and a redefinition of the place of professional journalism in this new information system. Arguing that while there was widespread fear about the damaging consequences of these trends for the quality of journalism and the professional survival of journalists, they still believe that current developments may, in fact, be paving the path toward better journalism and more independent journalists.

Titled “The Future of Journalism: Networked Journalism” the article by the three scholars poses a serious question when they ask if journalism consists of observing facts and asking questions, understanding answers and explaining those answers to others, and whether it can be said that anyone practicing any of these is a journalist? They further want to know if a journalist is someone who masters and practices all three of those in sequence?

Arguing that in the contemporary setting, anyone involved in any of these three tasks might be engaged in some form of “journalism,” they suggest that he or she would usually not do it alone. Proposing that as the data ocean expands and information becomes more complex, they conclude that professional journalists will increasingly need to collaborate with both a variety of other professionals and citizen journalists to perform each of these three consecutive tasks adequately. To them both, specialisation and collaboration will be needed to ensure the continued production of high-quality journalism in the future. This leads to a broader definition of journalism, one which includes various new practices related to the production of meaningful information in the 21st century.

Almost ten years before that very a strong argument in favour of specialisation in the training of journalists was published, two respected communication scholars in Africa, Kwame Boafo who is the Chief Executive Officer, Communication and Information Sector of the Paris-based UNESCO and Professor Francis Wete of University of Yaounde, Cameroon, also argue that as a result of the technological explosion and subsequent sophistication of society, there will be increasingly high demands for responsible conduct on the part of communication practitioners engaged in the production and dissemination of information and knowledge.

In a paper titled Communication Training 37

which way journalists in Africa: Model Curricula, published by UNESCO in 2002, the two scholars admit the knowledge attribute becomes a central element in communication training. Suggesting that the goal of communication training in Africa in the 21st century should be to produce competent practitioners in the different communication areas who are steeped in the culture of their societies and knowledgeable about the political, economic and social realities of their countries, region and the world, the two conclude that those trained should finally be also conversant with and adept at using new communication and information technologies.

Even in places where journalists are expected to play a major role in development by studying what is now commonly accepted as development Journalism, the goals of training cannot be adequately achieved without specialisation. In a study conducted in Tanzania by then Principal of Tanzanian School of Journalism Samwilu Mwaffisi whose findings are published in Vol 5 No 2 Africa Media Review of 1991, the scholar analyses the level of competence of Tanzanian journalists to handle developmental issues.

ort ely useful, the sh Though extremurse, could not take courses, of co ular programmes at the place of regs where professional the universitie trained on areas of journalists are ialisation spec Mwaffisi proceeded from the thesis that development journalism was not reporting about events but processes, and not reporting about personalities but issues. His study found evidence from a survey of 136 practising Tanzanian journalists to support the hypothesis that Tanzanian journalists were ill-prepared to meet the challenge of development journalism and recommended that media institutions should hire better academically qualified persons and then give them professional journalism training as well as continuing training in their areas of specialisation. This, according to him, would equip the journalists for more coherent and comprehensive reporting and analysis of processes and issues for a developing society.

The one institution that has been so concerned about specialisation for journalism students is UNESCO. As long ago as 2007, it has been eager to design a special course for science reporters in developing countries.

This desire led to a very special workshop on ‘Science journalism in developing countries’ that was conducted on April 16 2007 in conjunction with the World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, Australia.

The workshop was followed by a report titled “Developing a Science Journalism Course for Developing Countries”. Among other things, the report reveals science journalists working in developing countries face a number of challenges, such as getting local stories, dealing with reluctant or unskilled scientists, dealing with press officers who do not understand the science, being looked down on by scientists as well as fellow journalists, and being poorly paid.

38

It also discloses these journalists often have to deal with multiple languages, face the difficult task of translating science from English, and considering how scientific knowledge connects with indigenous knowledge. It further says that if they get to report on science at all, it is usually driven health issues or the latest environmental crisis. Though it acknowledges that there has been some media coverage in recent years on topics such as the growing digital divide, the role of information technology in development, and the perceived opportunities and risks of biotechnology the report concludes that there has not been coverage to the same degree of research programs and policies concerning critical public health issues such as malaria and HIV/AIDS; or of controversial issues such as genetically modified plants, the impact of climatic change, loss of biodiversity, protection of traditional knowledge and brain drain.

The most critical part of the report says a genuine obstacle to addressing these issues is the absence of training in how to report on them. It says there is a need to train and support science journalists in developing countries. This is yet another area of specialisation in journalism that should be part of the curriculum in Kenyan institutions training professional journalists.

One of the oldest schools of journalism is at the Indiana University.

According to its catalogue, it was established in 1820 as a tiny seminary in Bloomington and eventually became one of the first state universities to teach journalism. The brochure proudly explains its humble beginning in 1893 with three students in the first class which taught writing which supplemented the students’ liberal arts background in English, history, and economics. Today the school’s mission of fostering critical thinking about media institutions and global audiences, encouraging ethics in an international environment, and develop skills for dynamic journalism and media professions is worth emulating.

That mission explains its teaching goals as academic and professional; it is about learning, teaching and doing as informed by university’s core values of excellence, innovation, diversity, integrity, and social responsibility. The school claims to be committed to scholarly research in journalism and public communication, to liberal arts education, and to professional practice in media work. Today, that work is dominated by areas of specialisation which include broadcast journalism, photo journalism, magazine journalism, public affairs journalism, news management and entrepreneurship, journalism studies emphasis, international journalism, art and music journalism, sports journalism, visual journalism, news editing and long form journalism. Each one of these areas of specialisation has between five and twelve units. That, to me, should be the journalism training goals of the future in this country.

Joe Kadhi, a former Managing Editor of the Daily Nation, currently teaches media ethics at the United States International University.

He is also the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the Media Observer magazine. joekadhi@yahoo.com

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Long road: Overcoming the setbacks Moving forward, OWINO OPONDO suggests tertiary colleges and universities should find creative ways of engaging with the private sector and players in the media to set the pace for competitive journalism training.

A

cursory glance at different forms of literature announcing media training in Kenya at university and tertiary levels presents a crowded terrain, awash with variety. Indeed, it is a scenario that a fairly not-so-keen an eye would mistake for a full cast of actors adept at their roles and responding – rapidly – to the reigning demands of the market and the society.

A good number of public and private universities and middle level colleges offering journalism and/or communication, no doubt, have on their course menus what would pass for the traditional backbone of journalism training. However, the institutions face a myriad of challenges. The first public journalism training school was the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication in Nairobi’s South B. Established in 1963 to train technicians for the then Voice of Kenya (now KBC) and the Kenya News Agency, KIMC offers skills-oriented courses leading to certificate and diploma awards.

For long the college of choice for those who sought to pursue careers in journalism, KIMC, like other government institutions,

began experiencing acute funding shortfalls beginning the 1980s when the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund introduced the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).

With ballooning student admission in the face of dwindling State fiscal support and receding donor funding, KIMC has over the years suffered the burden of dilapidated infrastructure and thinning faculty. A good number of lecturers, frustrated by outdated and rusty training equipment in crowded lecture halls, have since fled for greener pastures in private colleges and other media institutions. The impact of the anomaly on the general quality of teaching and resultant products is easy to guess.

With the advent of liberalisation in the education sector, the government has since licensed more than 200 private colleges offering journalism and media-related courses.

Some of the private colleges – most of which are located in Nairobi - have installed modern training facilities, especially for radio and TV training. They have not dodged the curse of the missing trainer, though. And even in cases where some of the institutions have a sizeable number of tutors, their qualifications and experience have been wanting.

With a weak regulatory framework, the government had for long given colleges the liberty to decide on their courses and concentration, save for the fact that they offered diplomas in three years and certificates in two. The result is a chaotic scenario where some courses are taught merely to meet the

The Media Council of Kenya collaborates with corporates in recognising and upholding excellence and professionalism in the media industry in Kenya through the Annual Journalism Excellence Awards (AJEA).

The Media Observer July-September 2014

39

overcoming the setbacks The Media Council of Kenya convenes regular stakeholder meetings with an aim of promoting professional standards among journalists.

timeframe requirement and also to afford college owners some rent.

The scramble for the next client by private tertiary colleges has, unfortunately, led to ‘commodification’ of knowledge.

Here, numbers are what count even as quality is conveniently put on the back burner.

For that, there are some private colleges where learners are only taken through theories of communication, interspersed with short, outsourced sessions in print and electronic journalism. Do not worry that attachment to newsrooms compulsory as they should be - are treated as optional misadventure by the apprentice. Yet diplomas and certificates are issued at the end of the course. Coming to universities, there are currently more than 10 public and private ones offering courses in journalism and/or media studies.

However, their approaches for the attainment of the first degree are somewhat similar. Learners are taken through a crowded year of common foundational courses, most of which do not help in enhancing critical thinking. There is lack of moderation and each university decides what course cluster to offer and for how long.

Granted, the core work of a journalist is to purvey informed meanings to audiences. But that world of knowledge must be thematically interlinked in such a way that a learner is not confounded by irrelevant indigestion.

Most universities offer Information and Technology courses at the basic level, with facilities and programmes long overtaken by newsrooms. So much so that their graduates take too long to fit in at the work place. In their training of media 40

practitioners, a good number of universities are stuck with foreign and outdated books with little or no relevance to our local realities. The problem is not helped by the general poverty in locally published reference materials.

For reasons best known to themselves, universities are allowing journalism trainees to major so early in their course.

We are now seeing single-tracked graduates who say they know very little outside their core wing of study, say public relations, print or electronic media. This at a time when mainstream and auxiliary media employers are cutting operational costs. They are assigning fewer hands to more work ‌ with eyes on profits for shareholders.

With high number of students, most universities rely very heavily on part-time lecturers; a factor that does not enhance the requisite close supervision of learners and delivery on academic programmes.

Way forward There are a number of measures tertiary colleges and universities must urgently take to improve media training in Kenya. They include liaising with statutory and outside institutions such as the Media Council of Kenya to formulate standard training programmes for colleges in the country. That is a legal requirement under the Media Council Act, 2013.

The Commission for University Education is now required

e here some of th In some cases wa sizeable number institutions have ualifications and of tutors, their qve been wanting experience ha

The Media Observer July-September 2014

overcoming the setbacks under the Universities Act to thoroughly inspect institutional facilities and faculty before accrediting universities and their degree programmmes. This is a role the commission must play with utmost diligence, without fear, favour or fatigue.

Resources would, in the real world, never be adequate. Tertiary colleges and universities must, therefore, find creative ways of engaging with the private sector and players in the media industry to share collaborative programmes. They may include generating media content for sale to the industry as a means of income generation.

It is all fine to emphasise language competency as a germane entry requirement for journalism training. However, current affairs and knowledge of a few select social and natural sciences would help widen the worldview of trainees.

Journalism training institutions should also offer courses that encourage critical thinking such as Law, Philosophy, Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science and Literature. That way, the thirst to question things is ‘planted’ in the learners.

A good command of grammar in whatever the language of instruction is also important. For journalism is, in my view, the Alphabet Soup Science/Art riding on the back of knowledge.

Tell me if any journalist would operate outside letter A to Z and I will show you a liar! Words, good people, are sacrosanct!

It is all too well for universities and tertiary colleges to establish campuses in as many parts of the country to widen the public’s access to education. However, that spread-out must be informed by, among others, the availability of facilities and faculty. It must never be done widely, thinly. That way, the customer is shortchanged.

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Journalism training institutions must emphasise keyboarding skills, so that the graduates can process good copy for different media platforms within the shortest time possible.

Throw into the mix above-average online research skills.

Newsrooms are run on strict deadlines. A journalist without fast typing skills is an additional burden on an employer’s payroll. Journalism, sages told us, is literature in a hurry.

Training institutions should impose practical experience as a basic requirement for those who seek to be a journalism lecturer or tutor. There must be a mix of theory and practice to sum up the totality of the person standing in front of journalism students. Self-inflicted knowledge makes no sense to society if it is not put into practice.

We are living in times when your average consumer of information is more perceptive and also wants to participate in the generation of stories. Training institutions must now stand by to prepare a national corpus of experts in convergence journalism; those who have skills to speedily process information for techno-savvy customers who want to get stories on the go. And they want to verify what you tell them, as they fill in the gaps where they feel the original story teller was wanting. Yes, they are hounds; herbivorous consumer Net ‘natives’ seeking information packaged in the best, easily decipherable way within the shortest time possible. Are our trainers ready?

Owino Opondo is the Nation Media Group’s Editorial Training Coordinator.

The views expressed here are personal. hopondo@ke.nationmedia.com

41

journalist safety

Red flag

over missing safety protocol Mpeketoni killings and the Westgate siege are some of the recent dangerous assignments covered by ill-prepared journalists.

JOHN GACHIE looks at the jitters and how media institutions can handle the scenario.

F

or many years, journalists and other media workers were left to their own devices when it came to safety and protection training and exposure despite the dangers, risks and challenges faced in their professional and individual capacities. Rarely were journalists and other supporting media workers ever considered for any safety and protection training or induction let alone brief encounter or awareness creation, despite being daily and constantly exposed to dangerous assignments and beats. Far too often, journalists and other media workers were considered to be fair game, and as the military forces would say, “collateral damage� – implying that journalists caught-up in any dangerous and or risky situation were unintended victims, or as a consequence of unintended actions and happenstance, and usually described as a tragic accident.

Never was it thought that journalists and other media workers like photographers, sound and camera crews and teams would be victims of targeted attacks by news sources, and or people under coverage or news events, and occurrences. Even more secure and safe, it was believed, were editors and other back room news processing cycle professionals far often removed from the front-end news gathering processes and dangers if not threats and risks. So for many decades, journalism was believed to be a safe occupation, profession, craft and career that rarely if ever dangerous, risky and hazardous was more often due to accidents. At the normative level, the above belief system of the benign nature of (safe) journalism, news gathering and processing cycle belied a romantic perspective of news gathering as a neutral activity; that news gathering rarely offended any party or caused any harm, nor 42

disadvantaged any party so subjected to such scrutiny; and that all parties adhered to so a benign belief system.

The normative theory of (safe) journalism was and is still anchored on ethical practice, professional code of conduct, academic training and exposure; mentoring, peer review and practice.

The Media Observer July-September 2014

journalist safety

L a ck o f s it u at io n a l a wa re n e ss, a pp re ciat io n a n d u n d e rst a n din g o n t h e im pa ct a n d t h reat a n a ly s is a n d rins kd ex po s u re jou rn a li st s a ot h e r m edia wo rk e rs fa ced o n a d a ily ba s is dangerous are in descending order are the military/security forces, aviation, medical and first responders and extreme sports. The difference, however, in all these other dangerous and hazardous occupations and journalists is that they take great care and exceptions to their own in terms of training, exposure, kitting and post-exposure de-briefing, emotional self-care and support mechanisms and policies.

To put this state of affairs in its proper perspective, since 2000, more than 2,500 journalists and other media workers have died in the line of duty globally with the majority having been victims of targeted attacks by various warring parties or opposing forces. Many hundreds more have been injured while thousands more have fled to safer locations both internally and externally as their safety and protection was threatened primarily on account of their professional duties.

If journalists and other media workers were exposed and subjected to targeted attacks on account of their professional assignments and duties, many thousands more globally are victims of a silent and equally devastating malaise, psychological trauma and other related psycho-social afflictions that hamper their professional performance for being constantly on the edge and at the brink of mental malfunction due to operating in hostile environments or assignments.

Tragically though, conduct and practice of journalism has not followed this romantic benign trajectory nor have the subject parties been so inclined to view journalists as neutral or disinterested actors. In this regard, journalism has since its advent acquired a deadly under current – it is one of the most dangerous occupation, craft, profession and careers. Other occupations, careers and professions that are inherently

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Tragically though, unlike other disaster and first-responder professionals like the medical first aiders, fire-fighters and civil disaster personnel, journalists and their related news crews and supporting staff have been largely left to their own devices without a clear-cut mitigation and response mechanisms with devastating effects.

43

journalist safety In many instances, this state of affairs was ignored or swept under the carpet due to a combination of factors, the most tragic being that of ignorance – that journalists are immune and or unlikely to be targets, victims and affected by their professional assignments and environments.

The other major reasons was the lack of clear and supporting legal, professional and health super structures like labour and employment and occupational health standards and safety infrastructures and policies.

In this safety and protection barren landscape and environment that journalists and other media workers operated in was the lack of appreciation and awareness that journalism and its related supporting systems were at the fore-front of hostile and dangerous environment, which varied with the assignment, beat or news sources and subjects. This lack of situational awareness and appreciation of inherent risks, dangers and hostile environments in which journalists and other media workers operated in and regardless of the location, country or beat compounded their fate with devastating consequences.

institutions, have any form of safety and protection training and protocols let alone policies or even standard operating procedures specifically targeting journalists and other media workers operating in hostile and or dangerous environments and assignments.

Even more striking is the apparent and out-right dangerous if not criminally negligent lack of concern in the provision of appropriate protective gear and kitting for media workers while on assignment – in particular, news assignments that could be dangerous like covering riots, fires, floods and in civil strife and war zones.

In Kenya, the latest civil unrest and other dangerous assignments media workers have been assigned to cover include the Westgate attack, the Mpeketoni and Lamu areas, the Wajir and Tana River assignments.

Far too often, this lack of situational awareness, appreciation and understanding on the impact and threat analysis and risk exposure journalists and other media workers faced on a daily basis; and often times for long periods, made it doubly difficult journalists to adequately address their occupational risks and hazards.

In nearly all these instances, the journalists and other media workers were poorly kitted nor well trained and prepared nor sufficiently de-briefed and managed after the assignment to address any lingering effects and post-assignment trauma counselling unlike their counterparts in the security forces and emergency response personnel.

In nearly all these news events and assignments, most of the media workers were inadequately prepared, assigned and kitted nor were they given any follow-up post dangerous assignment de-briefing and counselling.

Unlike their other counterparts, the medical first responders, the civil defence and emergency response workers, police and military personnel operating in hostile and dangerous environment, journalists lacked comprehensive safety training and protection protocols and standard operating procedures.

Indeed few, if any media institutions including media training

For most news organisations, including the leading media institutions, the journalists and other media workers were believed to be either “professional” enough to accept that such assignments and exposure were part and parcel of the profession and that such exposure were really a badge of honour and part and parcel of career initiation and progression

44

The Media Observer July-September 2014

journalist safety sort of coming of age ritual and a badge of honour in one’s career and professional growth. Granted that nearly all journalists, media workers and even senior media mangers and editors would be expected to pass and or experience such career and professional milestones in their upward career and professional ladder; but it should not be devoid of proper safety training, preparation and kitting including post-exposure emotional self-care and counselling.

Indeed, it behoves the media institutions, senior editorial managers and other senior professional mentors and trainers to constantly endeavour to carry out a systematic, postdangerous and hostile environment assignment analysis and review, to constantly update and de-brief their journalists and other media workers. It is now universally accepted and normal practice for media institutions to expose their journalists and other media workers to basic safety and protection skills, training and exposure including providing requisite protective gear and kitting for such assignments, and to maintain a constant self-care and psycho-social profile and support mechanism and policies.

The National Assembly has passed the Media Council Act 2013 which seeks to uphold the protection of the rights and privileges of journalists in the performance of their duties.

In this regard, the establishment of a proper and functional safety and protection protocol and policies including a dedicated editorial safety and protection manager or editor is not only imperative, but part and parcel of best practices of any editorial department. For far too long and with far too many casualties, journalism and news gathering operations have sacrificed far too many youngsters for far too little with the attendant far too many brilliant journalists and other media workers slipping away – What a waste!

John Gachie is a Media Consultant/Trainer. gachie_john@yahoo.co.uk

The Media Observer July-September 2014

45

social media

Social media:

The contents and discontents GEORGE NYABUGA argues that online platforms can be seen as an opportunity for greater good but also as avenue of misconduct in a society where character assassination and unaccountable pronouncements are rife.

A

lot has been said and written on the use of social media, and particularly whether it is a blessing or curse for practising journalists. As I have previously argued, the use of social media facilities like Twitter and Facebook is not neutral. Its utility and effects depend on modalities of use rather than mere availability or access.

Social media refer mostly to online resources, including blogs, vlogs, social networks, message boards, podcasts, public bookmarking and wikis that people use to share content like videos, photos, images, texts, ideas, insight, humour, opinion, gossip, and news. Popular examples of social media applications include Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google+, Wikipedia and Bebo.

The growth, popularity and increasing appropriation of such

46

social media has engendered numerous debates not only among practitioners, scholars but also ordinary people and moral entrepreneurs who seek to critically interrogate their uses and effects. What we have come to associate social media with is its ability to democratise content production and sharing.

Such democratisation offers opportunities for people to foil the power of oligarchic traditional media steeped in their own cultures that often bar ordinary people’s participation in information collection, ‘manipulation’ and distribution. But such traditional cultures are facing serious challenges now, thanks to the so-called social media which has birthed new strategies or approaches to media productions, distributions and business models. Accordingly, traditional media establishments have themselves appropriated social media, mostly as distribution channels and attendant new revenue streams, as they seek to survive in new environments that do not respect old modi operandi and ‘established’ and ‘tested’ business models.

In this ‘old’ or ‘traditional’ traditional-‘new’ (social) media marriage and arrangement, it becomes perilous for journalists and their media houses to ignore social media, and the opportunities they offer. This is based on the simple (and now hugely acceptable) notion that social media aids business and that it is unavoidable in modern media operations. To this effect, it is often commonplace that established or even upcoming

The Media Observer July-September 2014

social media media houses have their own Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ accounts and others and often use these platforms as complementary avenues through which to communicate and share stories and other texts.

In fact, it has become urgent and even fashionable in recent days to use facilities such as Twitter to alert audiences to stories or break news mainly because traditional media constraints make it impossible to operate in an environment where immediacy is hugely attractive, desired and privileged. In addition, to capture and retain the attention of the young digerati consumers and expanding online communities (including those in the diaspora), it is imperative to maintain their presence on social media. This is predicated on the fact that falling traditional media audience shares and rising status of social media forces media houses to be innovative in their approach to gaining and maintaining popularity.

One online writer on Social Media Frontiers argues that “with the growing use of social media to report news the consumer perception of real time news is changing – people now expect to receive news instantaneously and expect constant updates of developments. This is significantly influencing the direction and practice of journalism. The availability of these online blogs and social media networks has changed the way journalists operate and it can be a valuable tool aiding journalists in newsgathering, and it can act as another platform for content.

“One of the greatest positives of social media for journalists is the way that it has the power to engage with greater audiences. Social media can move information quickly among a large group of people, and can provide a valuable twoway engagement with the audience, changing significantly how journalists talk to their audiences and listen to their response. This can mean that local news can transform into international

The Media Observer July-September

news very quickly as social media has the power to transfer information across the world instantaneously. The power of social media to expand audience engagement can also be seen through the way that it can act as a platform for content to redirect viewers to branded news sites. … Established journalists may also choose to utilise social media because it can act as another way to distribute their content which they have researched but been unable to use in TV or radio – this way it ensures that their hard work and research does not go wasted.”

Such romanticisation and celebration of social media is, granted, currently commonplace. However, while we celebrate the arrival and effects of social media, particularly because they have democratised and even devolved (and foiled the power of oligarchic media houses) information sourcing, sharing and consumption, it is imperative to investigate the use of such media platforms on media houses and professionalism. The effect on journalism as a profession (as well as professional values, ethics and guidelines) is even more urgent and serious given complaints that social media have become platforms and avenues for uncivil and unaccountable ventilations by people unbothered and unencumbered by ethical considerations and guidelines that established media houses have to adhere to. Accordingly, viewed from the lens of professionalism, social media can be seen as both opportunities for greater good but also suspiciously especially in a society where character assassination is commonplace, or where people use the veil that such facilities and platforms offer to engage in criminality, hate speech and other unaccountable pronouncements and behaviour.

In recent times, we have seen incidents of plagiarism practiced even by established journalists.

Given concerns that journalists are becoming intellectually and physically lazy, that they can’t critically interrogate, internalise and understand issues, online sources have become a content bank from whence they often un47

social media ashamedly borrow (in fact, steal) without acknowledgement.

Such wanton plagiarism characterised by lack of intellectual rigour and integrity demeans journalistic ethos and professionalism.

Granted, journalism has benefited from available online and social media resources. As the largest information banks in the world, the Internet and social media offer journalists ‘free’ resources and that should better or strengthen stories. As one online author contends, social media has helped journalists “collect more material on news stories … [it] has provided access to a wider range of voices who are able to tell their own stories and opinions on the matter. Social media also helps journalists to source eyewitnesses quickly, as people are keen to tweet or post about interesting things they have witnessed to tell their friends about what they saw. This can be a significant benefit making it easier for journalists to track down those who might have a firsthand account of an event”.

But as it also been argued, social media is slowly eroding journalistic integrity and professionalism. It has become a ‘trade’ or ‘craft’ practised by anybody interested in writing. People with a knack, interest, desire or passion for storytelling and writing may well consider themselves ‘journalists’.

However, at a time when journalism is under the spotlight for reasons ranging falling content quality, disrespect for guiding principles of truth and ‘objectivity’, among others, the rise (and

48

somewhat acceptance) of citizen journalism means journalism is now suffering a credibility and trust crisis. This is especially critical at a time when people look up to (professional) journalists and media to tell stories that resonate with the needs, and matters that genuinely interest the public. Without professional training and qualifications, citizen journalists, bloggers and other content producers (however credible and popular) may not be encumbered by the fundamentally important professional principles and guidelines. It goes without saying that the rising disrespect or disregard for the values, principles and guidelines that underpin journalism have seriously damaged to journalism as a profession and the trust that people had on the media as purveyors of ‘truthful’ information.

This observation is reinforced by a survey conducted by ING among an international group of journalists and PR professionals that found, inter alia, that journalists are now less bound by journalistic tenets, particularly the verification of information before publication. Thus while traditional media see social media as complementary, they have to constantly grapple with numerous issues regarding the respect for traditional tenets or principals that guide professionalism. Such concerns are of course warranted given that ‘truth’, responsibility and accountability are key principles in journalism.

Dr George Nyabuga is a media scholar. gnyabuga@yahoo.co.uk

The Media Observer July-September 2014

Accreditation Pursuant to sections 4, 6(h), 23(c) and 46 of the Media Council Act no 46 of 2013, the Media Council of Kenya undertakes Annual Accreditation of journalists practicing in Kenya for purposes of compiling and maintaining a register of journalists, media practitioners, media enterprises and media training institutions in Kenya.

Accreditation fees Local Journalist: Ksh 2,000 Foreign Journalist: Ksh 10,000 Foreign Journalist (Short Term - 3 Months): Ksh 5,000 Student: Ksh 300 Card Replacement Fee: Ksh 300 Requirements for Accreditation A letter from the employer; Freelance/journalists accrediting for the first time are required to produce a letter of reference from the organisation they correspond for, a portfolio of work done and proof of professional training; A clear passport photograph taken on white background; Accreditation fee (Ksh 2,000 for local journalists, Ksh 5,000 for foreign journalists staying for less than a year, Ksh 10,000 for foreign journalists staying for

1 year and Ksh 300 for students). Students should produce a letter from school and a student ID. Foreign Journalists are required to provide the following: A letter from the employer Professional Certificate that is either a Degree or Diploma in Communication from a recognised training institution Portfolio of work done either in Print or Broadcast (Please provide the work not website links) in addition to a clear passport size digital photograph, a valid work permit and Passport.

Card Replacement: Lost press cards will only be replaced upon production of a police abstract and letter from the employer stating the loss.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE 1. Certificates and portfolio should be provided by ALL journalists accrediting for the first time with the Media Council of Kenya.

2. First year students are not eligible for accreditation.

Training institutions are advised to issue them with introduction letters when carrying out field based assignments.

In case of any queries, contact us at: accreditation@mediacouncil.or.ke

The Media Observer July-September 2014

49

P. O. Box 43132 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254 20 2737058, 2725032 Cell: +254 727 735252 Email: info@mediacouncil.or.ke