If Kenya burns, we will blame the media.
![]() |
A demonstrator being cornered by the police during a previous Anti-IEBC demos in Nairobi. |
The media plays a key role in shaping how society operates
by articulating ideas and influencing perceptions and attitudes. This simply
means that it should cultivate the proper balance between self and collective
interests which, sustained by the interaction with the community, is important
for social order. Thus, the media at all times should adhere to very high
professional standards and uphold neutrality, only taking a stance in public
interest, not parochial interests.
Kenya currently is at its most sensitive moment where a
slight mistake can light a fire that will be very difficult to extinguish.
In recent times, the media has been various complaints against
the media over professional standards. There has been numerous cases where the
media has been accused of distortion of facts by placing improper emphasis of
one aspect of a story, by reporting the facts out of the context or by
suppressing relevant available facts, amounting to ethical violations by the
media.
The media is expected to report inflammatory political
speech in a manner that is both accurate and least likely to provoke violence. Unfortunately,
the Kenyan mainstream media has of late been completely out of hand inciting
violence through their irresponsible journalism. The kind of content shown
on the screen these days are inflammatory, hate-inciting and aimed at polarising
the nation.
Though we fought to protect free speech, acts that might incite
violence are not free
speech.
The modus operandi and
design exhibited by the media today is reminiscent of the 2007-8 post-election
violence in which more than a thousand people were killed on the basis of false
propaganda spread via the media.
Personally, I am deeply saddened by the growing degradation
of the so-called ‘mainstream’ media. For quite some time now, there has
been an increase in strident and extremist tone of ‘reporting’ and acceptance
of ‘opinion’ voices which seek to attack and disparage our fellow Kenyans.
It is a sad state of affairs that the media is being used
too often to openly incite acts of violence against fellow Kenyans in the guise
of ‘freedom of the press’.
There has been a broad series of praise for public criminal
violence in the media and more cagey publications phrasing as if such violence ‘was
ok’ just because they were perpetrated by people ‘friendly’ to the media
stations concerned. The mainstream media has been used to glamorise, incite and
wink at criminal violence as somehow ‘justified’ and ‘right’ because the media
writers and their editors do not agree with a certain political wing’s views.
Political inclinations, obsession with economic returns and tribalism
are key issues degrading media practice in Kenya. The country is sharply
divided by the two main political outfits, Jubilee Party and NASA, and the
media has not been in any way different. Their opinions on various issues
especially concerning the three Arms of Government (the Executive, Legislature
and Judiciary) and constitutional bodies like the Independent Electoral &
Boundaries Commission (IEBC) have been so biased depending on the side of
political divide their editorial policies prescribe to.
This has dictated the kind of news items and political
analysts they present on their platforms and it does not require rocket science
to identify which side of political divide each media house secretly supports.
It is also an open secret that media houses do ‘sell’
headlines and prime airtime to the highest bidder. Thus, the media sees nothing
wrong with certain public incitement and praise of criminal violence and will use
their might and vast media reach to castigate or silence other sources that
expose this vice.
It is in the same vein that the media will hype ‘police
brutality’ but turn a blind eye on the criminal elements engaging in the violence
and crime that attracted the police action in the first place. The media treats
what these ‘criminals’ say as the gospel truth but blacklists anything that comes
out of the police as outright lies and defense for abuse of authority.
The media too glorifies lawlessness and violence via social
media through proxy blogs which they use to say what they themselves are unable
to due to the laid down legal checks and balances manning their profession.
NB: All
mainstream media houses in Kenya run separate blogs away from their mainstream
sites.
In a nutshell, lack
of media professionalism is one of the greatest challenges facing this country.
The role of journalists has been challenged by the social media which has become
the key source of information for most people even though what is put on social
media is mostly rubbish. In the fight to retain their relevance, the mainstream
media and most journalists have ended up playing ball.
However, journalists have to continue to be journalists and
should conduct their activities according to high standards of ethics, accountability,
legality and credibility, while exercising rights such as freedom of expression
and information. Ethical values are crucial in the way journalists shape
content, hence the need to examine them critically in journalism practice.
No comments: