19. Accountability

The ethical principle of accountability challenges journalism professionals on three levels. It challenges them on personal, institutional and societal levels. On a personal level every journalists ought to be ethically awake almost all the time. When chasing a story, when writing it and even when publishing it. At all these three stages a journalist’s uprightness on ethical matters are constantly challenged. The bigger the story the greater the challenge.

Accountability in journalism in the Kenyan context has absolutely nothing to do with what is popularly known in America as Accountability Journalism which, according to the Associated Press, is allowing reporters to tell the truth as they see it rather than by being guided by impartiality and fair play. But according to Steve Boriss, who teaches journalism at Washington University in St. Louis, accountability journalism is a sham because it allow opinion in news articles.

That aside, there has probably been no time when Kenyan journalists were more challenged ethically than when they covered the post election violence. Many journalists were carried away by the excitement of the time and gathered, wrote and published stories which today appear to have contributed, to a certain extent, to the high level of emotionalism that led the country into the shameful outbreak of tribal and violent confrontation.

Indeed both the Waki and Kriegler reports point an accusing finger to journalists and the role they played in pushing the country from the frying pan into the fire. According to the Waki Report, before, during, and after the elections, politicians, government, NGOs, members of the media itself, and parts of the public, all had views about whether and how the spread of information through the print and broadcast media had contributed to the 2007 post election violence. Waki, therefore, asked a number of individuals to testify before him concerning the role of the media in the post election violence.

The  report actually exposes that many witnesses appearing before Waki recalled with horror, fear, and disgust the negative and inflammatory role of vernacular radio stations in their testimony and statements to the Commission. In particular, they singled out KASS FM as having contributed to a climate of hate, negative ethnicity, and having incited violence in the Rift Valley.

It goes on to reveal that there were also similar complaints in other parts of the country even though they did not come directly to the attention of the Commission. These, according to the report, included the vernacular music and negative ethnicity allegedly coming from Kikuyu FM stations including Kameme, Inooro, Coro, and others in other different parts of the country.

Just before the outbreak of the clashes tempers throughout the country were high. Newspaper headlines were sensational; and the question to ask now is whether or not the inflammatory election campaign stories could have been covered differently. On December 2^nd 2007, for example , The Sunday Standard headline screamed “NO RETREAT” in capital letters, followed by a huge kicker reading “No surrender”. Another smaller kicker said “Raila and Kibaki in a rat race in Coast and Rift as top 3 go for each other’s throat.

As if that was not exciting enough the story ran: “It is December ’07 and two days into the General Election month, the competitors are in the Karate’s ‘no retreat no surrender’ mode. It is all systems go and the comfort, because of the homestretch leg, has taken a back seat. But more significantly it was the week parties strove to calm raging fires in their bellies over the sham primaries and the sour after-taste the losers were left with”.  

On December 3^rd 2007 The Standard splash headline read “Its now or never”  and the kicker said: “Race against time: It’s an all out war for votes by Kibaki and key rivals Raila and Kalonzo as ECK set to unveil the 21-day official campaign period”. The Sunday Nation of December 23^rd 2007 also screamed in a headline saying “It’s attack mode in the eleventh hour”. The kicker said: “Candidates trade last-gasp blows as end draws nearer”.

 

The Daily Nation of December 3^rd had a headline reading “Propaganda war” with a kicker saying: As the case for State House intensifies, parties have gone into overdrive to paint rivals as unsuited for leadership, and there is no sign of let-up in the poll battle”.  

With the advantage of hindsight and cooler heads journalist can look at the treatment of those stories and ask themselves whether they would have handled the explosive situation differently.

What, if any, should have been the changes to be made in the stories I have given examples of? Could those stories be watered down without changing the meaning and without disobeying yet another important ethical principle of Accuracy? To get proper professional answers to these questions the ethical principle of Accountability comes into play. It all begins with the individual journalists who handled the sensitive stories. Each one of them should personally convince themselves that they did their best and would not hesitate to repeat the same approach of handling a story in similar situation.

If the individual journalists are honest with themselves, they would probably find a professional way of telling the same story in a watered down manner without changing any facts. But the matter of accountability can be so personal that individual journalists have to do a lot of soul-searching to arrive at an honest answer.

When it comes to institutional accountability the whole matter becomes a little bit more public with professional views getting expressed openly in a workshop situation. Well established institutions go as far as hiring academics to lead  discussions on ethical issues which are normally conducted on regular intervals. I first learnt about this way of sensitizing journalists on ethical principles at The St Petersburg Times in Florida where I was attached for a moth as the Managing Editor of The Daily Nation.

While there I learnt that Editors become more professional when they remove themselves from ivory towers and engage in serious professional discussions on ethical issues with almost everyone in the editorial department regardless of the positions they hold. On issues such as accountability everyone who handles any story in the newsroom should be concerned and should be invited to express his or her views openly without victimization.

If such a workshop was to be held at the Daily Nation or The Standard to examine the coverage of the 2007 elections many interesting views could have been expressed showing how tribal and political loyalties played their part in determining the manner in which various stories were treated at that time. Accountability means the power of the professional ability to reexamine oneself and determine whether or not some mistakes were made in collecting, writing and editing stories. Honest self examination always leads to correcting the future in handling sensitive stories. With regular and constant self examination any professional journalists perfects his level of accountability. An institution achieves the same goals by constantly and regularly following the same process of self examination through candid workshops and symposia.

Self examination would reveal journalism fell to the bottom low level in the coverage of the 2007 election. Similar self examination, however, would reveal very high standards of professional coverage of the just ended referendum. At that time President Mwai Kibaki challenged the media to play an objective watchdog role by naming and shaming those people who engaged in hate speech, lies and negative ethnic persuasion. It was the President’s Madaraka Day open challenge to professionalism in journalism. No sooner did the President make the challenge than the Daily Nation published a story on page five of Wednesday June 2nd’s paper headlined “Ruto: New law will legalize gay union”. 

Keen observers wanted to test the Daily Nation’s professional standards vis-à-vis the President’s challenge. Ruto’s claim was definitely a lie but it was a newsworthy lie since prominence, proximity, timeliness, human interest and even consequences were its news values. It is a story no journalist worth his salt could ignore. The best way to handle it was to engage in interpretative reporting and the Daily Nation did so in the most admirable manner.

The story started by saying the Higher Education Minister William Ruto claimed gay marriages would be legal if the Proposed Constitution was passed into law. But the paper was quick to point out to its readers that the new constitution specifically outlawed gay marriages and quoted the Proposed Constitution’s Chapter Four, Article 45 (2) which says that every adult has the right to marry a person of the opposite sex. This manner of reporting which actually obeys the ethical principle of accuracy exposed Ruto as a politician whose utterances suffered from a serious deficiency of truth.

Today editors at the Daily Nation  can look back with pride and account to its readers why it had to engage in interpretative journalism. Institutional Accountability sometimes requires the existence of an ombudsman in a newspaper, radio or television station to do nothing but explain to viewers , readers and listeners why certain things are done by media houses. Whenever a paper takes a political stand, for example, the reasons for such a stand can be explained both in the editorial columns and through explanations by the ombudsman who should also be able to answer all questions asked by readers , viewers and listeners.

As far as communal accountability in journalism is concerned professionals should be in a position to account to the community every step they take that may, in one way or another, affect the community. While doing so they should know every community has its own yardsticks measuring what is right against what is wrong. In general Kenyan community abhor both thieving and thieves to such an extent that when one is caught red handed committing the crime of theft, the punishment is instant death by stoning.

It is extremely strange that a community that is so readily abrupt in  imposing  the death penalty for petty crimes such as stealing bananas or vegetables at the marketplace , is paradoxically so docile and almost absolutely hopeless while dealing with reckless matatu drivers who kill members of the same community with impunity. To be accountable to a community with such strange behaviours journalists have to be extremely daring and walk where angles fear to tread.

Condemning primitive community behaviour such as mob justice is quite acceptable to me while calling to wananchi to resist being killed like chickens on Kenyans roads is probably a professional challenge that needs to be fulfilled. While serving the community journalists should know boundaries that cannot be crossed. A detailed story explaining how female genital mutilation is inflicted, for example, would cause a public outcry. The outcry would turn into a public revolt if that story was explicitly told with photographic illustrations. Being accountable to the readers is to understand instinctively what would offend or disturb the pubic.          

Sometimes a certain degree of self censorship is called for when dealing with stories that professional journalists know are likely to cause disharmony, discontent or disgust. Today journalists may have to exercise some voluntary self censorship with the ethical principle of Accountability in mind. In not so distant a past self censorship in journalism was the order of the day in Kenya. As Dr. Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications testified before the Waki Commission,  the media in this country had been controlled by the state formally from the 1930s until the mid- 1990s.

According to the Waki report he explained that as KANU still was in power up to 2002, the expanding media continued to be subject to harassment, torture, imprisonment, and fines for expressing their views. Censorship and self censorship also ensued, stemming from fear of reprisals by the state. Dr. Ndemo told the Commission that various media outlets continued to voice the views of the ruling party KANU as late as the 1990s even following the 1991 repeal of section 2A of the constitution and the return to multi party democracy in Kenya.

He noted that only after the 2002 election did the Government engage in a process of liberalization. This included licensing many new stations, something he told Commission that positively affected all parts of the media. That being the case it is even more important for professional journalists to be upright in upholding ethical principles especially that of Accountability.

The Code says Journalists and all media practitioners should recognize that they are accountable for their actions to the public, the profession and themselves. So far I have endeavored to discuss personal, institutional and societal accountability. I have assumed that when one is upright with these three he or she will automatically be professionally accountable. To be professionally accountably as far as professional ethics are concerned is to adhere to every single principle without any exception.

That means gathering, writing and editing stories fairly and accurately. It also means always being professionally independent; respecting and championing the cause of freedom of expression , the media and information; always being professionally impartial; trying to be absolutely fair to everyone ; remaining relevantly decent in all the different interpretations of the word; and above all always being professionally responsible.

The Code also says professional journalists should actively encourage adherence to these standards by all journalists and media practitioners; and   respond to public concerns, investigate complaints and correct errors promptly; while recognizing that they are duty-bound to conduct themselves ethically.

18. Integrity

This is one of the most cumbersome ethical principles because it involves other ethical tenets to be found in the Code of Conduct and Practice of Journalism in Kenya. These include attribution, confidentiality, impartiality, subterfuge and paying for news and articles. May be the most challenging directive from the ethical principle of integrity is its demand that journalists should not accept gifts, favours and compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.

Looked at critically that part of the code alone would put many a journalists in Kenya to great shame for almost all of them are  regular receivers of all sorts of gifts and favours from all sorts of news makers. These gifs range from Christmas presents to junkets which virtually take them all over the world. Recipients of the gifts and junkets vary from the most junior correspondents in the smallest villages of the country to the most respected editors in huge offices of national media institutions.

Implementing this aspect of   the Code will be as challenging as following the demands made in Chapter Six of the new Constitution which talks about leadership and integrity. The paradox for journalists will be writing exposes against national leaders who are incapable of following the demands of Chapter Six while disobeying journalistic ethical principles calling for the same observance of high standards of integrity.

The Code also says journalists should not engage in activities that may compromise their integrity or independence. Since journalistic independence has been discussed in the previous article the word in the Code to look at semantically is integrity. According to the  dictionary the word has three meanings. First it means possession of firm principles: the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards. Secondly the word means completeness: the state of being complete or undivided (formal) for example the territorial integrity of a nation. The third meaning of the word is that of wholeness: the state of being sound or undamaged (formal) for example the public confidence in the integrity of the voting process.

One meaning accepted by many scholars sums that up in fewer words that suggests the adherence to moral principles; honesty. Secondly it has the connotation of being unimpaired; soundness or even unity and wholeness.

The drafters of the Code must have been guided by the meanings mentioned above especially the word’s first meaning of possessions of firm principles and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards. The Code says journalists should present news with integrity and decency, avoiding real or perceived conflicts of interest, and respect the dignity and intelligence of the audience as well as the subjects of news.  

That suggestion takes us slightly away from the semantic argument of the word integrity; but it succeeds in provoking our minds on a number of issues of presenting news with integrity and decency. If we can forget the aspect of decency momentarily and concentrate on presentation of news with integrity then we have to ask ourselves one simple but vital question. What is presenting news with integrity?

In my opinion that is presenting news factually without fear or favour even if that means publishing and being damned. To me that means gathering information professionally by following all the accepted methods without habitually engaging in subterfuge. I say “habitually” because there are instances when subterfuge is ethically permissible and I intend to discuss that later when examining the ethical principles of attribution and confidentiality.

Having gathered the news professionally the journalist is then obligated to write it in a no less a professional manner whose integrity can be judged by respecting the truth based on known facts and professional interpretation of those facts. The question of decency is itself controversial as its meaning varies from society to society. What is accepted as decent in one society may end up to be the most indecent thing to do in another society. Since journalists in Kenya serve a conglomeration of societies gathered together in a holistic entity called Kenyan culture then the only yardstick to be followed when presenting news decently is to think of readers, viewers and listeners collectively as Kenyans.

That may be a very easy thing to do for the national news institutions. But very soon Kenya is likely to have a multiplicity of media institutions scattered all over the country producing newspapers and news bulletins for radio and TV stations in different parts of the country. Such local news services may have to obey different rules on matters concerning decency. The rule of the thumb is never to offend our readers, viewers or listeners whether they are national or simply provincial.

On the issue of conflict of interest one can never forget how bylined articles on major events tend to slant the news in line with the ethnic background of Kenyan writers. As Kenyans we recognize our ethnic backgrounds by our names.  It is therefore extremely strange, if not altogether baffling, when writers openly take outlandish stands in defence of their own ethnic leaders while preposterously castigating leaders of rival ethnic groups, even when their reasoning is not backed with logic. The influence of ethnic background of top journalists in their editorial decision making process is more real than perceived in Kenyan situation.

The perception of viewers, readers and listeners that journalists are tribalists first and professionals second can only change if the journalists stop underestimating the intelligence of their audience. The calibre of Kenyan readers, viewers and listeners changes for the better almost every year when the people become more educated. Very much like the new voters of Kenya, media audiences are becoming very critical and intelligent consumers of news. They no longer swallow what is given to them by journalists without thoroughly chewing it. If it is not palatable enough they do not hesitate to spit it out with all the contempt it deserves.

Readers, viewers and listeners can easily detect a situation in which journalists’ professional competence is wanting. The Code’s demand that journalist should treat the subject they handle with integrity, therefore, could not be more relevant. Many are the times when we hear disc jockeys in a number of our radio stations pretending to be serious news analysts to the disgust of listeners. If there are any violators of the ethical principles of integrity in the profession, morning disc jockeys who pretend to be professional journalists top that list.

The Code also advises journalists to identify sources whenever possible. This is, for all practical purposes, attribution which I intend to deal with in greater details when discussing the ethical principle of Unnamed Sources.  The ethical principle of Integrity demands that confidential sources should be used only when it is clearly in public interest to gather or convey important information or when a person providing information might be harmed. To discuss this part of the ethical principle one has to examine another ethical principle of Confidentiality which I discussed in details in The Media Observer issue of September, 2006.

The issue of clearly labeling opinion and commentary, as suggested by ethical principle of Integrity, has bothered journalists for a very long time. As far back as 1922 the American Society of Newspaper Editors (Asne) saw the issue of separating opinion from fact essentially as that of impartiality. At that time it said sound practice makes clear distinction between news reports and expression of opinion and added that news report should be free from opinion or bias of any kind.

But Asne in 1922 clearly distinguished that this rule did not apply to so-called special articles unmistakably devoted to advocacy or characterized by a signature authorizing the writer’s own conclusion and interpretation. Today Asne says that to be impartial does not require the press to be unquestioning or to refrain from editorial expression. It says sound practice, however, demands a clear distinction for the reader between news reports and opinion and adds that articles that contain opinion or personal interpretation should be clearly identified.

In Kenya the mixture of news and opinion is so common that may example could be given on daily basis concerning almost all the Kenyan media.

The Kenyan Code advises journalists to use technological tools with skill and thoughtfulness, avoiding techniques that skew facts, distort reality, or sensationalize events. There was no time when this aspect of the Code on Integrity was violated more than during the “Green” vs.  “Red”  referendum campaign. At that time Kenyans saw some fantastic television commercials for and against the Proposed Constitution. A number of them seemed to have very little regard to the Code of Conduct and Practice of journalism in Kenya.

Top on that list was an advertisement by the “NO” team showing an unborn baby in the womb with the heart still beating indicating the fetus was alive. Then the camera moves to some living children responding to a symposium interview: one says the unborn child must not be killed because it has blood; the other says it must not be killed as it was indeed a living being. Then the camera moves to a written text saying:  Protect life, vote “NO”. 

Technically that was an ingenious advertisement. It emotionally moved people and probably won the “NO” camp may votes. But ethically it was unprofessional. It gave the erroneous message that voting “YES” was supporting abortion when factually the Proposed Constitution said in Article 26 (1) every person has a right to life; and in Article 26 (2) said that the life of a person began at conception; and in Article 26 (3) it said a person would not be deprived of life intentionally, except to the extent authorized by the Proposed Constitution (meaning the Constitution that has new been promulgated) or other written law.

Despite all that the Proposed Constitution clearly said in Article 26 (4) abortion was not permitted unless, in the opinion of a trained health professional, there was need for emergency treatment, or the life or health of the mother was in danger, or if permitted by any other written law. Publishing a horrifying picture of a fetus which ostensibly was about to be killed and then interviewing children pleading for sparing the life of the unborn child was contextually erroneous and therefore unethical. If it was unethical, it also was, needless to say, unprofessional and should not have been accepted by the media houses at whatever cost.

Probably the most controversial TV commercial about the referendum was the one showing the Minister for Higher Education, William Ruto, openly supporting the Draft Constitution. It depicted him saying it was a good document that could do a lot of good for the country. Soon after that the camera showed Ruto condemning the Proposed Constitution and then the camera moved to yet another William Ruto who was castigating hypocritical   Members of Parliament who said one thing in the National Assembly and the complete opposite when they were outside the chamber. 

From a propaganda point of view that was a fantastic commercial which made Ruto appear to be the most hypocritical leader who said one thing at one time and the complete opposite at another. Whereas both the footages of William Ruto were basically correct, they were not professionally upright as they were not contextually correct and therefore they were actually very wrong factually. The commercial did not say that the first footage showed William Ruto praising the Draft Constitution after it was thoroughly chopped and reshaped by Parliamentary Select Committee which included himself. The commercial was also professionally wrong because it failed to point out that what Ruto was praising and condemning were two different drafts of the Proposed Constitution at their two different stages of development.

The “NO” camp then correctly complained about the manipulation of films which showed William Ruto doing things out of context. What was shown to the public was neither accurate nor fair to William Ruto and it went against the very first professional ethical principle of accuracy and fairness which says that the fundamental objective of a journalist is to write a fair, accurate and an unbiased story on matters of public interest.  The principle demands all sides of the story to be reported, wherever possible.  It also says comments should be obtained from anyone who is mentioned in an unfavourable context.

The Code on Integrity reminds journalists to use surreptitious news gathering techniques including hidden cameras or microphones, only if there is no other way of obtaining stories of significant public importance, and if the technique is explained to the audience. This is known professionally as subterfuge which is discussed in greater details under the ethical principle of misrepresentation.

Paying for news sources is also a matter of concern as far as the ethical principle of integrity is concerned.  Whereas in Kenya paying for news sources is not as serious as in the Western countries where millions are spent by newspapers, radio and television stations for the sake of getting scoops, I intend to discuss it in greater details under the ethical principle Paying for News and Articles. The principle of Integrity also suggests that journalists should not   pay news sources that have vested interest in a story.

Though the Code recommends journalists in very general terms not to engage in activities that may compromise their integrity or independence, discussing such a recommendation would open up many cupboards containing a lot of rotten skeletons among some professionals. Going to any cocktail party, for example, would reveal a shameful picture of habitual gatecrashers from newsrooms who become conspicuous by the high level of their inebriation. Yet they are the most ubiquitous in almost every embassy where their editors are also present.   

17. Independence

This is the most controversial ethical principle in the journalism profession. Media proprietors in the capitalistic world do not like it. It tends to obstruct what they consider to be their right to interfere with editorial decision making process. In this country it took quite some time before it was included in the Code of Conduct and Practice of Journalism in Kenya.  When the Code was first published in Kenya in 2001, the ethical principle of Independence did not appear anywhere in the list of 23 first principles. Independence never appeared in the list in the second edition of the Code published in 2002, neither did it appear when the Code was reprinted in 2004.

Very much like the word “ethics” itself, independence has always disturbed British proprietors who seem to have quite an influence in their former British dominions, territories and colonies like Kenya. Those influenced by the British take the  meaning of the word ethics as  the philosophical study of the moral value  of human conduct and of the rules and principles that ought to govern it . Emphasizing the aspect of philosophical connotation  they become reluctant in accepting  its reference to a journalistic principle.

There is little wonder, therefore, that in Kenya we officially, very much like the British, refer to the journalistic ethics as the Code of Conduct and Practice of Journalism. Yet in every institution of higher learning where scholars study journalism, journalistic ethics are recognized as much as other ethics in professions like medicine and law. If medical ethics exist in the profession of medicine and legal ethics exist in the profession of law, there is no reason why journalistic ethics should not exist in the profession of journalism.

After all thousands of books have been written on the subject of journalistic ethics and there are countless scholars in many parts of the world studying the subject. Bearing that in mind I discuss Independence as a journalistic ethical principle, semantic arguments about the word ethics notwithstanding. Until today the British Code of Practice for journalist does not contain the ethical principle of Independence. In Kenya it was not until when the ethical principles were revised, just before the Media Council become statutory that Independence officially became part of the ethical principles.

The Kenyan Code says journalists should defend the independence of all journalists from those seeking influence or control over news content. It says journalists should gather and report news without fear or favour, and vigorously resist undue influence from any outside forces, including advertisers, sources, story subjects, powerful individuals and special interest groups. The issue of gathering news professionally is extremely sensitive to Kenyan journalists. Many are times when news editors send reporters and photographers to cover stories with very little news values simply because the source of the news concerned is invariably a powerful individual.

It is not beyond imagination that unprincipled news editors can be, and very often probably are, influenced by some powerful   outside sources. Powerful individuals in Kenya are so used to publicity that it has now become debatable whether there can be any news in Kenya without them. Prominence as a news value may be professionally very important, but it is still arguable whether prominence alone should dominate every front page day in and day out without considering mixing it with other news values such as timeliness, proximity, consequences or impact and human interest.

When prominent people dominate the news through the professional choice of editors there is absolutely nothing wrong; but when they become the centre of publicity in whatever they do because they control the editors’ ability to choose what is news, something is drastically wrong with not only the profession of journalism itself but some fundamental human right issues. Professionally it is the qualified journalists who should determine what is news and not the news makers no matter how important they are.

The first generation human rights demand that everyone should enjoy freedom of expression; but that freedom, it is constantly becoming clearer everyday, depends entirely on freedom of information, if it is to be meaningful at all. Yet the right of the people to know becomes seriously curtailed when the news makers determine what is and what is not news. Whenever that happens powerful news makers will always make sure that all the news that is not favourable to them does not see the light of the day.  

Given the fact that advertisers in Kenya are the buttered side of the journalistic bread, their power to determine what is news cannot be underestimated. For that reason the big advertisers in Kenya can never be subjected to the rigorous scrutiny that an ordinary individual has to go through. The big advertisers’ skeletons, if they are there at all, are so properly covered and kept away from the inquisitive eye of the investigative journalists because the advertisers have an indirect way of determining what is news – the threat to withdraw that ad.

In Kenya, news sources always try to influence journalists and particularly editors. Today negative stories about how journalists are bribed in order to cover stories are everywhere in every major industry which are said to give their public relation officers special funds to bribe journalists officially. Big industries in Kenya have special budgets for that and editors cannot pretend not to know this shameful fact. Until the matter is corrected journalism in Kenya will always have a problem with the journalistic ethic of independence. 

Kenyan journalists, like their professional cousins all other the world, are controlled by their sixth senses to scoop one another. But when one scoop is exposed, all the predators jump on it and the subject dominates all the front pages and all the news bulletins. One such story was the recent sale of human genitals stolen from dead bodies in mortuaries. In a situation like that journalists in Kenya compete to get all sorts of angles of the story and before the subject is exhausted it controls the journalists rather than journalists controlling it.  That is what he Code means when it says that journalists should not let the news subject have undue influence on the professionals.

Given the Darwinian nature of the profession it becomes very difficult to determine when a subject has been exhausted. Sometimes the best ways of determining that is to look at the letters to the editor. When letters of complaint begin to flow in, then it is time to change the subject.

Special interest groups in Kenya also interfere with the delicate job of editorial decision making process. When the country was deeply engaged in the “YES” and “NO” debate during the referendum, one of the most influential special interest groups was the Church. Evangelical churches had bought airtime in influential TV stations to present their biased views disguised as current affairs programmes. Televangelists used their airtime bought as commercials to pretend to analyse and interpret the then proposed Constitution.   Other professional bodies such as the LSK and FIDA are powerful opinion makers which must not be allowed to determine what news is.

The Code also advises journalists to resist those who would buy or politically influence news content or who would seek to intimidate those who gather and disseminate news. This type of influence became clear during the referendum for the new Constitution. Among the most vulnerable people to be bought by politicians are journalists. The trouble is that whenever a politician pays a journalist for a favour, that news spreads like fire in a very dry forest. When a journalist is known to the politicians to be on the take, he or she totally loses professional respect in all political circles. This is a subject that needs to be looked at by all MISC members through the Media Council to come up with a joint solution.

Professional journalists are also advised by the Code to   determine news content solely through editorial judgement and not the result of outside influence. When I joined the profession more than half a century ago the sole determinant of the news content was the editor who, for all practical purposes, was the demigod of the newsroom. With the professionalization of journalism in Kenya, that has now become the responsibility of very well trained professionals who hold special meetings well before deadlines to determine the placement of every news item in any newspaper, magazine, TV or radio station.

Journalists are also advised by the Code to resist any self-interest or peer pressure that might erode journalistic duty and service to the public. Self-interest is a human characteristic every dedicated professional learns to control. In journalism the temptation of blowing one’s own trumpet by giving oneself huge picture bylines must be systematically resisted because when it is not it becomes as conspicuous as a sore thumb. Like all newsrooms in every part of the world, those in Kenya are subjected to peer pressure which can only be fought by an open professional debate on any issue during all important professional meetings to determine what news is.    

According to the Code journalists must recognize that sponsorship of the news should not be used in any way to determine, restrict or manipulate content. A lot of new in Kenya is sponsored. In fact all news bulletins on television are sponsored; but as far as the tube is concerned there is no interference from the advertisers in determining what news is. However there has never been an occasion when the sponsors have been involved in news negatively. Whenever that happens then the sponsorship of TV news would be subjected to very tight scrutiny by professional peers.  

Last, but not least the Code urges journalists to   refuse to allow the interests of ownership or management to influence news judgement and content inappropriately. This is probably the most difficult part of the Code. Is there proprietorial interference in editorial decision making process? That is a very difficult question to answer and those who have the answer, meaning the editors, will always be very reluctant to tell the truth.

Some of the proprietors in Kenya are themselves news makers. One of them is none other than the former President Daniel Toroitich arap Moi. In September last year he made news when he defended his political stand against the new Constitution. Speaking at Kilgoris where he was one of the people who congratulated David Rudisha, who had broken the 800 meters record twice in less than a week, the retired President said "I want it known that I never opposed this new law just to get cheap publicity but I had reasons for my action."

According to his own newspaper The Standard of September 9 Moi said: "This new law has a lot of shortcomings which are not favourable to the ordinary citizens and leaders should not sit back and watch things done the wrong way."  Whereas the former President is entitled to his opinion it is strange that his paper The Standard of Sunday of September 19 had an exclusive story on the front page titled “Fresh War Erupts Over Control Of Counties”.

The story below that headline which was highly tendentious if not fictitious said: “As the country grapples with the thorny issue of implementation of the new Constitution, leaders in counties are embroiled in bitter squabbles that could derail the process. Indeed counties – a creature of the new law— are staring at a nightmare barely a month after the new Constitution was promulgated”.

It so happens that the whole country believes the counties in Kenya are the best thing to have happened in the political development and enhancement of democracy in the country. The only ones who hold the contrary opinion and think of counties as “thorny” issue are The Standard and one of its most powerful owners, Daniel Moi.  Everyone in the country believes that the declaration by various leaders to take over the governorship of the new counties is a democratic right of every Kenyans based on healthy acceptance of the new structure of governance. But The Standard calls the political interest of Kenyan leaders “bitter squabbles”

For some very strange reasons The Standard belief that the counties “are staring at a nightmare” seem to totally agree with the views of Daniel Toroitich arap Moi, the powerful owner of the paper. Is this a coincidence or proprietorial interference in editorial decision making process? If it is the later then it goes against the Kenyan ethical principle of Independence.

16. Financial Journalism

The Code says journalists should not use financial information they receive in advance of its general publication for their own benefit. They should not also pass the same information to others. The Code also says journalists should not write about shares, securities and other market instruments in whose performance they know they or their close friends have a significant financial interest, without disclosing the interest to the editor. It further says journalists should not buy or sell, directly through nominees or agents, shares or securities and other market instruments about which they intend to write in the near future.

Though financial journalism in Kenya is blossoming there has been no complaint of violation of this Code by practitioners. Such a complaint caused a scandal in Britain in 2000 when the Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan bought substantial shares of a company called Viglen Technology only one day before its share prices rocketed. Did he have inside information before he bought the shares? The scandal was exposed by the Daily Mirror’s biggest rival The Sun which called for Morgan’s resignation. Following The Sun’s story Morgan was summoned by the o executives of the Daily Mirror and asked to reveal all his share dealings since he became the editor.

He now reveals what happened in his book and says: “I told them the circumstances behind the Viglen purchase and they seemed satisfied. I also explained that both my broker and one of my cousins who occasionally trades with him had bought Viglen shares a few weeks before I did. And that my uncle had also recommended them only last week.”[1] According to Bond the Sun’s expose was followed by investigations by both the Press Complaints Commission and the Government’s Department of Trade and Industry as well as the Stock Exchange which monitors transactions in quoted companies for evidence of insider dealings.[2] Bond claims that calls for Morgan’s resignation went as far as the House of Commons threatening the then 34 year old editor who had reestablished he Daily Mirror as an “intelligent populist force after the title nearly folded.”[3]

Financial journalism in Kenya has been the weakest part of the profession for a very long time. Business pages were produced by ordinary reporters who neither impressed economists nor financial experts. Today things have changed and business pages are extremely busy. As Levin (1997) observes one of the reasons why there are not many reporters interested in financial journalism is that it is quantitative.[4] By financial journalism he means all the writing that has to do in a very direct way or a very basic way with money or finance. But he argues that the same kind of qualities that are required for good financial journalism are required for good journalism of all kinds.[5]

According to Burton (2002) financial journalism is an “odd” subject of the media and its practitioners in America are sometimes better paid than their peers in other branches of the profession, partly because they are assumed to have some special knowledge and are less likely to panic at the sight of sets of numbers.[6] He criticizes financial journalists for not being quick enough in blowing the whistle on the successions of corporate scandals that have been making headlines in the United States.[7]

In Kenya there are many corporate scandals that go undetected for the failure of financial journalists to come up with appropriate exposes. Ordinary wananchi are conned by unscrupulous crooks day in and day out without the protection of financial journalists. Indeed savers lost millions in the scandal involving Trade Bank before any financial journalist sounded and alarm bell. Financial journalists all over the world, including Kenya, may be a breed of special people with special quantitative skills but they will most certainly be better journalists if they put their skills in investigative aspects.

It may be true that the Code only concerns itself with the use and abuse of financial information particularly shares and securities;.but I believe financial journalism covers a much wider area – an area that makes it possible for the production of all the business and financial pages and programmes which in Kenya are improving everyday. Financial shenanigans, however, need to be the concern of financial journalists who must see their role as that of exposing dirty deals in business and financial circles.

Kenyan financial journalism is more reportorial than investigative and this is a big challenge for the experts in the field. The kind of investigative journalism on business and financial matters which is boldly conducted by The Private Eye of Britain could be most welcome in Kenya when journalists become courageous enough to publish and be damned. Burton believes financial journalism as it is practiced today is more of a “mouthpiece for companies than as their tormentor.”[8] This is particularly so in the case of Kenya where improvement of business reporting has not been accompanied by critical analysis of the ugly pictures behind what readers, viewers and listeners are fed with everyday.

One of the major reasons for uncritical financial journalism in Kenya is the fact that big businesses keep media houses alive through advertisement. Both editors and proprietors are reluctant to bite the hand that feeds them. Besides that there is a bit of corruption in the name of hospitality that takes place all the time. Junkets are commonplace and gifts during Christmas time are accepted by senior editors from the most powerful companies. For obvious reasons this Code is more restrictive that permissive. Editors are always watchful not to offend proprietors and proprietors always protect colleagues in business. It is a vicious circle.

In Britain the Press Complaints Commission has given its members what it calls “Private Eye” Test to determine what to and not publish in financial journalism. The test says: If it would embarrass a journalist to read about his or her action in “Private Eye” and at the same time undermine the integrity of the newspaper, then don’t do it.”[9] Whether the Media Council of Kenya should introduce such a ruling which seems to amounts to self censorship, journalism scholars should discuss.

The other reason that makes financial journalism in Kenya attractive is the fact that Kenyans have become some sort of capitalists. Besides politics they are keenly interested in reading about shares in the Nairobi Stock Exchange. More and more of them are interested in matters concerning insurance and pension policies. They are also interested in stories about guiding them to make sensible savings.

So any journalist who can interpret intricate figures involved in these matters into simple and understandable common language, can qualify to be called financial journalist. Freelance journalists who understand money matters will always sell their stories more easily than those who write about crime and politics which are very crowded areas. All in all financial journalism in Kenya seems to be still in its embryonic stages and until it develops to include serious exposes in business and financial giants it will still remain an infant in the profession.



[1] Morgan, Piers. Insider. Ebury Press in Great Britain. 2005.
[2] Bond, Simon “Insider Trading Scandal Roils Already Nasty Tabloid Slugfest” in Time Magazine on Website. Visited in 2007.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Levin, Doran. “Everything We Write Is Rooted in Money. Learn to Follow The Buck” in Detroit Free Press .1997.
[5] Ibid
[6] Burton, P.S. “Financial Journalism: A very Small Cog” in Counter Punch Newsletter on July 30th 2002.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid
[9] From the Press Complaints Commission’s “Financial Journalism Best Practice” Note 2005.

15. Sex Discrimination

The code says women and men should be treated equally as news subjects and news sources but everyone knows that almost all media institutions in Kenya are rampant with all sorts of discrimination based on sex. Few journalists in this country have conceptualized the idea of gender equality as a human right issue. According to Maureen O’Neil, President of the North-South Institute, there is a growing conviction among women activists in virtually every country that women’s rights are human rights. However, she argues, securing rights for women – rights within the family, rights to won property, rights to abortion, rights to vote , rights to move about freely without a husband’s or male relative’s agreement, right to pass on citizenship – frequently have not been seen as central to “development”.

She says: “In countries of the North, the fight for legal rights has animated women’s struggle for separate personhood, as legal rights have always been seen as stepping stones to equality. This struggle for just, legal treatment for women is now going on around the world.” That is except for Kenya and many other African countries. The struggle for gender equality has yet to knock the media door, forget its opening that door and entering the newsrooms.

When the nominated MP , Njoki Ndungu, tabled the Sexual Offences Bill in Parliament in early May in 2006, Kenyan journalists missed a wonderful opportunity to prove that newsrooms are not as chauvinistic as many suspect. Like the rest of the Kenyan male dominated community the media made fun of the Bill despite the fact that sexual offences in Kenya are as heinous as they are escalating. The reason could be the fact that most of the decision making positions in all the major media houses are male dominated despite the fact that schools of journalism throughout the country train equal number of male and female journalists. As a result of the lackadaisical manner in which the Ndungu Bill was handled by the media it was drastically mutilated before it was accepted by the majority of Kenyan parliamentarians.

Human Rights for Women

As stated before, gender issues are now being perceived as an important element of human rights for women. Men can no longer be allowed to continue to succeed economically, politically and socially at the expense of women who are left far too behind. They cannot be let to get away with it all by simply saying that behind every successful man is a woman. The woman today would rather not be behind anybody's success but her own. She wishes some men took the trouble to be behind her success for a change. All she wants however is to be at the same level of success with men because she knows it would take a long time before she is allowed to play the leading role.

Time has however come when gender issues to be openly discussed through the Press even though, by and large, the mass media remains male dominated. In the past, indeed until very recently, gender issues were not regarded by journalists, including female journalists, as important enough to warrant front page treatment in newspapers or to be used as first items in Television or Radio news bulletins. The reasons for that are many and complicated but the situation will not change unless we conduct a thorough examination about what determines the subjects covered by journalists, who assigns them and who allocates the space or air time used by the stories once they are written.

Needless to say, we may also have to examine how the stories on gender issues are written before they are used by editors as "hard" news stories, features, news bulletins or film documentaries. That examination will be incomplete without first determining what gender issues are and how to go about making sure journalists in future do not ignore them. Women being part and parcel of humanity, makes it extremely difficult to distinguish which aspect of human existence needs to be highlighted so as to enable us to evaluate women's role in society and whether that role is being given its due respect and recognition. But if we agree that gender issues are basically Human Rights issues then it becomes less cumbersome to list aspects of life which tend to disfavour women or discriminate against them. In the Kenyan context the list can be very long.

Poverty among women

Though they are the most hard working group, women in Kenya cannot be said to be given a fair opportunity to either earn decent incomes or own property. Despite the hard work they put up, many of them appear to be among the groups with lowest incomes. Apart from being denied a fair opportunity to make a good income for themselves they also happen not to be given a fair chance to take part in making important economic decisions. There are few of them in the administration and even fewer in parliament, large numbers of their existence as voters notwithstanding. A very small number of them are in courts and in local government.

One hardly hears of their representation in big financial institutions. For these reasons and more, it becomes impossible to see stories about women's poverty as such. No one seems to be concerned about their poverty. Journalists writing about economic issues or business stories hardly ever highlight the mistreatment of women in the economic activities of the country mainly because many of them are either gender insensitive or they simply happen to be men writing about male dominated affairs.

Business assignments specifically to cover the unfair imbalance against women are not made – hence business pages hardly ever carry stories about the mistreatment of women in this important sector of the country's economy. Past mistakes can only be corrected by sensitizing present business writers to gender issues or better still making sure that women journalists hold important positions in business sections of editorial departments.

Violence against Women.

According to a Unesco - conducted research, stories written in Kenyan newspapers depict men and women playing their traditional roles which associate men with strength, leadership, decision-making and independence while women are associated with the very opposite of these characteristics. Stories about violence against women are therefore hardly written by journalists in Kenya mainly because male editors do not assign journalists to cover them or when they are written they are used in the inside pages as fillers since journalists who are insensitive to gender issues do not see them as "news".

A government survey published by the Daily Nation of May 26, 2006 indicated that violence against women went up from 11,867 to 12,036, an in increase of 169 in one year alone. Most of the women who reported violence at that time were battered by the spouses. According to the report many more cases were unreported. The report said rape, attempted rape, incest, defilement and assault were listed as common offences committed against women.

“Last year,” said the report, “1,451 rape cases were reported, while those on defilement were 1,416. Assault and battery cases topped 9,169. In a bid to check rising cases of violence against women, the Government posted specially trained offices to Nairobi’s Kilimani police station to deal with such cases”. Gender desks were also set up at every district police headquarters to encourage victim of violence to report cases.

Who should determine what is news in modern day journalism? It is obviously unfair to continue publishing front pages stories of male politicians calling each other all sorts of names day in and day out when women are being seriously injured by their husbands as they "instill discipline" into them by physically battering them up without a single word being written in our newspapers about these shameful activities. To many male journalists when a politician insults another it is first class news deserving front page treatment, but when a husband causes serious bodily harm to his wife it is simply a private domestic affairs unworthy of any publicity.

According to Unesco, only a small minority of women in Kenya are considered to be newsmakers; and the exclusion of women from the "news" is of course related to the definition of news. This definition needs to be re-examined if gender issues are to get fair coverage in our newspapers, TV and radio stations. The problem of lack of coverage about violence against women in Kenya is caused by more or less the same insensitivity of male editors who assign reporters to various tasks. It is also caused by absence of women journalists in decision-making positions in newspapers.

Studies conducted in India about the coverage of women affairs reveal a situation which is not very different from what we see in our own country namely: Women are under-represented in general, and occupy less central roles than men in TV programmes and in newspaper stories. Marriage and parenthood are considered more important to women than to men; and the traditional division of labour is shown as typical in marriage. Women on TV are more passive than men. Women are absent from action and adventure programmes or/and from decision making roles. There is a tendency of depicting women as victims rather than aggressors while their financial and emotional dependence on men and their unwillingness or incapacity to solve their own problems are all magnified. Poverty and violence against women are two of many subjects which could occupy much more prominent positions on our newspaper pages as well as prime time of our TV and radio programmes.

There are many subjects about women which male journalists who are insensitive to gender issues are not eager to cover. Lack of interested female journalist to cover them means subjects such as forced female mutilation; unequal job opportunities, educational opportunities etc; polygamy and forced early marriages; lack of legal awareness among women victimised by men; cultural and religious beliefs that tend to go against women's human rights; laws being used to subordinate women; health issues which endanger women's lives such as illegal abortions and unequal partnership in marriages are really not given media prominence they deserve.

FGM

May be one aspect about violation of human rights against women in Kenya that is so difficult to write about is FGM which was banned in 2001 followed by Children’s Act of 2002 which criminalizes it but is still widespread because of socialization and religious beliefs. Writing for Women’s eNews’ May 27th 2006 edition, Ochieng Ogodo says after being outlawed FGM has now gone underground “to the dismay of many anti-FGM advocates who worked to dissuade midwives from performing the traditional rite.” Ogodo claims FGM is now conducted under a cloak of secrecy in more clinical environment such as rural and small city hospitals.

He says there even accounts of mobile FGM clinics in which nurses an clinicians move from village to village, easily eluding police . If these claims are true they are yet to be exposed by journalists. Ogodo explains the practice is widely believed to increase the girl’s chances of marriage, prevent promiscuity, and promote easy childbirth. “Women who do not circumcise their daughters run the risk of being seen as irresponsible, immoral and imitators of Western culture,” he says.

An even trickier aspect of covering FGM is journalists’ ability to explain to the people the various forms of FGM which subject young girls to extremely torturous and highly primitive behavior. According to the US State Department Country Report of Kenya there are three types of FGM: (a) Clitoridectomy (b) Excision (c) Infibulation. The first one entails the removal of clitoral hood mainly practiced by the Kisii people; the second entails the removal of clitoris and together with labia minora (the inner vaginal lip) mainly practices by Merus and the Masais and the third one entails the removal of everything which is common among the Somalis.

Part of the problem facing Kenyan journalists and the sensitive FGM story they are not able to fully write is the fact that a number of female journalists have undergone the ritual and some of them are not quite convinced it is that diabolical!

The Traditional Women's Page

One of the biggest problems for women journalists - and the cause of lack of adequate gender sensitivity among most Kenyan journalists - has been caused, paradoxically, by the so-called women's pages which have been responsible for the subjugation of female journalists at work and the reason for chasing stories of very little benefit to women readers. Probably stories written by women journalists in Kenya and which are mostly published on women's pages are dull for historical reasons because these pages were started by female European journalists such as Liza Mackiney and Mary Hayne who wrote for European readers in 1960s and 70s.

They wrote about European fashions and trends with no African woman in mind. Though African women Editors have taken over the publications of these pages, very little seems to have changed in the content of the pages. This seems to suggest that every woman in Kenya is preoccupied with Western-oriented beauty and hair style, cookery and child-husband care. Attempts must be made to restyle the traditional women's pages both in content and positioning in newspapers so as to give women journalists and indeed male journalists who are gender sensitive an opportunity to write about more important issues concerning the rights of women in society.

In this day and age when both women and male journalists undergo the same training and have more or less the same academic qualifications, it is foolhardy to ask women journalists to write for women's pages only and write about dull subjects such as hair styles and the latest shoe fashions. May be one of the strongest arguments against women's pages is the placement of news about women's issues on these pages which hints to men that this is not their concern.

The fact that no gender battle will ever be won without changing the attitude of men does not seem to concern those who are after the continuation of present set up of separate pages for women. Female editors and reporters with the same qualifications as men are now taking a different view of women's pages and they demand that sensitive gender issues should be given as much prominence in newspaper display as any other issue concerning men.

Thirty years ago when the women's pages were being written and edited by European female journalists, African women readers had a problem of dealing with the notion that black woman was "ugly". That, I suggest, was the beginning of use of wigs by black women who, in an effort to look as European as possible, did not care how ridiculous they appeared when they wore blonde wigs which actually made them look ugly. The Press in Kenya, through women's pages played a highly significant role in the promotion and selling of the concept of the Ugliness of an African woman.

Women journalists in Kenya would be doing a great professional job if they exposed that sector of cosmetic industry in our country which is entirely dependent upon the pursuit of European beauty by black women. Certain entrepreneurs in cosmetics and "beauty products" have become millionaires as a result. Yet any serious campaign against commercial products which tend to demean the African women are likely to face very serious opposition from powerful groups of advertisers who are likely to get the backing of newspaper owners.

This is despite the fact that a number of advertisements published in Kenyan newspapers continue to expose Kenyan women to a feministic model whose psychological, physical and material characteristics are derived from Western cultural values system which attempt to imitate European women. A number of advertisements published in Kenyan newspapers depict women as sex objects and glamour girls just like those advertisement in the Western World.

One of the most respected researchers on this issue of misuse of women as advertising "baits" for a number of commodities is Margaret Gallagher who bitterly criticises this reactionary and yet insidiously flattering images which the media present of women-to themselves and to men - as sexually alluring sirens. The advertising industry in Kenya could simply not survive without the use of women as "baits" in the sale of products ranging from cosmetics to liquor and cars.

Strictly speaking, there should be no objection to the use of women, men or children in advertising but the contention comes when women's bodies are used as sex symbols and baits to sell various commodities including condoms. Most advertising in Kenya tends to exploit women in terms of their sexuality and their physical appearance. This trend has been copied from Western publications and TV programmes and has mostly been transplanted into this country unchanged. Margaret Gallagher's research on portrayal of women in various countries reveals that men always remain the centre of the women's universe.

In Brazil, for example, fictional stories on Television portray women as people who cheerfully, and without any complaints what-so-ever, sail through their domestic chores single-handed on top of a day's work outside the home. When this scenario is brought to Kenya, it ceases being fictional because it is actually a way of life for many working Kenyan women. In Britain, Gallagher discovered that apart from a handful of female politicians, the only other category of women considered newsworthy is that comprising celebrities.

The treatment of women in Britain as "hard" news involves a series of stereotypes concerning physical appearance, domestic role, marital status which portray them as perpetual dependants of men. This British example is the pattern of news selection in Kenyan newspapers, radio and Television stations. Unless a woman in Kenya is a politician or a celebrity, she cannot expect to appear on the front pages of our newspapers or make a lead story in our radio or television bulletins unless she miraculously took a trip to the moon and returned in a day.

When she is talking of the gender issue she will be lucky to make a filler in the inside pages of the newspapers or the last item of the radio or television news in this country. Gallagher tells us that women in Australia are portrayed in the media as the careful and homely housewives or sex objects or the efficient secretary and the devoted mothers. The story can hardly be said to be different in Kenya. The one country where Gallagher found gender issues being given the media coverage they deserved was in Sweden where newspapers, television and radio dealt with the relationship of women in the labour market.

She also found the media in that country being very concerned with the whole country's growing radicalism about women's work in the home and in paid employment. The media were reasonably sympathetic to the role of the housewife whose work was portrayed as hard, time consuming and responsible. The question then arises: If journalists in Sweden can overcome prejudices against women and treat gender issues as real news, why are we not able to do the same here?

Negative Media Treatment of Women

Either because of ignorance on how to deal with gender issues or because of the absence of women in important decision-making positions in the media institutions, journalism in Kenya can correctly be criticized for continued under-representation of women in the hard news columns of newspapers and news bulletins of our Radio and Television. Apart from under-representation of women in the news presentation in Kenya, there have also been noticeable ambivalent attitudes to women in the news which are evident in certain stereotyped images in which women are either "good" and "pure" or they are "bad" and "immoral".

Generally speaking this image of women comes across in stories in newspapers or even fiction in books and indeed plays shown on our TV screens. The "good" women are those who are confined in homes taking care of their families and are dependent on men while they show romantic attitudes towards their husbands. The inferior status of women in social, economic and cultural spheres comes out as accepted norms in both fictional characters and actual newsmakers. Generally speaking, women in Kenya mostly make news as wives, mothers or daughters of men already in the news.

They hardly ever make news on their own merit unless, of course, they happen to be part of the man-run or man-benefiting fashionable activities or man-benefiting entertainment business. And as has been pointed out before, the advertising that goes with these fashionable and entertainment activities are usually extremely condescending both in their tone and their unhidden manipulative intentions. The misuse of women as the "bait" through which various products are sold need not be emphasized.

The Virgin - Whore Dichotomy

Either consciously or simply by blindly obeying sociologically established cultural values, the media in Kenya, like those in many parts of the world, continues to portray women through a dichotomous motif which defines women either as good mothers who are traditional or as whores or call-girls who are modern. The virgin-whore dichotomy is more clearly noticeable in fictional portrayal of women in the electronic media in Kenya.

In this presentation, the woman is "good" if she is characterized by dependence, ineffectuality, humility and lack of initiative. But she is normally a "bad" character if she is a career lady and if she is independent and shows a bit of self-control which is not dependent on men. The most serious question which naturally follows this observation is; why do some women willingly agree to take part in plays and fictional presentations of programmes which portray them as being subordinate to men?

The answer is obviously deeply buried in the inequalities which are within our own cultures. Cultural and sometimes religious explanations are the root causes of gender inequalities and are probably the most difficult for journalists to expose and criticise. Any journalist with enough courage to criticize a religious or cultural norm which negatively defines the role of women is a crusading journalist worthy of praise. But Kenya has very few of these! Looking at gender discrimination based on culture and religion clearly makes me wonder whether a time has not come for a deliberate campaign to bring about change in some of our cultural values.

That campaign ought to be as vigorous as the present democratization movement in our society. Those expected to take the lead in such campaigns must be journalists. No gender issues can be brought up as major topics in newspapers and in the electronic media without a thorough examination of our ideologies of domesticity and motherhood. The structures of many stories about women are based on the subordinate domestic role of an African mother. The cultural roles of women in the domestic atmosphere of our society must be a subject of critical media examination. The whole political and economic structures of our entire society need to be examined to see whether they treat women fairly or equitably. Gallagher says in a world where female access to political and economic power is in most cases severely limited, their status and roles are defined within political, economic and cultural systems which tend to exclude them from effective participation. The mass media's role is primarily to reinforce definitions and identities set in a framework constructed for and by men. An overriding concern for women, therefore, should be with changes in the political and economic structure. Yet media have been observed to lag behind as an independent change agent. Even if the media in Kenya cannot be expected to initiate change, they can certainly be expected to reflect it.

Participation of Women in the Media

So far this chapter has looked at the manner in which the mass media in Kenya portray the women in general and gender issues in particular, but to do so without examining the role women journalists play and the condition of their employment as professional people would be only looking at one side of the coin. In examining the gender issues in the Kenyan mass media it is important to look at both portrayal and employment aspects of women in Kenya. If the portrayal aspect of the issue looks hopelessly bad, then that of employment can be said to be equally impoverished as the participation of women in media production is still very wanting in this country.

Apart from being numerically fewer than men, women journalists who are already in employment are experiencing an extremely difficult task in trying to climb upwards into editorship or other important positions in the editorial departments of newspapers and other media organisations. The importance of women taking part in defining "news" before journalists are given assignments has already been examined by this chapter but the sad news is that it appears as if it will be a long time before women in journalism play that pivotal role in this country.

Apart from that, the morale of women journalists is constantly being weakened by the fact that few of them have the professional independence or autonomy of writing the subjects of their choice. Many of them are forced by male editors to write about the traditional women issues of fashion, motherhood and good housekeeping. Their desire to write about the modern burning gender issues can hardly be fulfilled under these conditions. Their journalistic talents can also not be seen when they are confined to write about very limited subjects. Naturally, if any journalists continue to write about subjects of little interest to the readers, viewers and listeners they can hardly be noticed by their bosses when pay rises and promotions are being considered.

The morale of women journalists is constantly being affected by the attitude of editors towards day-to-day news decisions about what to cover and how to cover it. Women journalists are sent on uninteresting assignments because it is assumed that they cannot handle aggressive sources of news. This of course has been proved wrong locally by journalists of Catherine Gicheru's calibre and internationally by journalists like Christian Amanpour who covered the Iraqi war together with Peter Arnett though we only hear of the later as the hero of war coverage.

Because of the equality in educational background of all journalists in Kenya today and the fact that the majority of them go through the same training, it is extremely unfair to insist on giving assignments based on gender even though those assignments have nothing to do with the gender issues. The few women who were in the profession during my time as Managing Editor of the Daily Nation preferred to work for the traditional women's page and my efforts to move one whom I thought could be an excellent general reporter ended up with a resignation threat.

The selection of news under my editorship may have been based on male roles and may have ignored the role of women, while whenever they were involved, a tendency to refer to irrelevant details about their appearance, age and family status was shown. Yet not a single woman journalist complained about this tendency and I believe this was due to lack of people sensitized on gender issues both on the part of male writers of the time and female journalists in the news rooms. The reference of the then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as "The Iron Lady" was common in our headlines yet no one wondered why we made no such descriptions about any male leaders. And women journalists did not raise a finger!

Be that as it may, it is extremely important for all journalists to get equal pay for equal work but without equal opportunity this call means absolutely nothing. Occupational segregation which splits assignments into "male” and "female" jobs will always work against women journalists who will be omitted from the so called "dangerous" assignments which are invariably a source of front page stories and a stepping stone to higher and more responsible positions which inevitably go with better pay.

Dual Responsibilities of Women Journalists

Most of women journalists who are also mothers combine the dual responsibility of domestic work and professional assignments. Through my carrier as a newspaper editor no man ever asked me for permission to go home to either baby-sit or to cook for children - a constant reason for women journalists' absenteeism or early retirement from office and avoidance of working late hours. The persistent attitude in our society that housework and children are women's rather than men's domain has always worked against women journalists whose chances for promotion are and will continue to be jeopardized by the fact that they cannot work late or they cannot be recalled at night to chase sensitive stories which earn their writers recognition and promotion.

Most women journalists working for the mainstream newspapers in the country are members of the Kenya Union of Journalists, yet very few of them hold any positions in the union and hence the union does not seem to fight for gender issues in the employment of journalists in the country. The percentage of women in the Kenyan Press was said by Unesco in 1981 to be five per cent. That number must now obviously have increased and the union should be even more concerned about the mistreatment of its female members if it is to be credited with being really concerned about the welfare of all its members.

With the number of women journalists increasing, there is no noticeable increase in responsible positions held by women in the mass media. Thus, it is fair to conclude that there is considerable occupational segregation against women. One notices a clear concentration of women in less prestigious jobs in both newspaper and the electronic media where women are not only less paid than men but also where there are less chances for career development and therefore less chances for promotion. A visit to any of the Kenyan media houses would reveal that jobs of telephone operators, secretaries, tea makers and translators are mostly occupied by women whereas men hold top editorial positions. Until today there are no women journalists holding top positions in the Foreign Desk, Business Department, Sub Editor's desk, Supplements Department or even Sports Departments.

It is therefore not difficult to note that there is segregation against women both horizontally where they hold most junior positions, and vertically where they hold very few top jobs. At the technical level there is a negligible number for women in the country's broadcasting, film or the print media. The reasons managers in these industries give for not promoting women is that most women cannot work long hours or night shifts. But very little consideration is given to the fact that most women working for the mass media in this country carry the dual burden of family and work responsibilities making it very difficult for them to compete with men who have the freedom to work the hours they are assigned to or travel whenever they are demanded to by their assignments.

The only panacea to this serious professional imbalance for women journalists seems to be a demand for a legislation which would protect their rights as mothers and which would make sure there was real equal pay for equal work. May be those concerned with gender issues in journalism should be thinking about the introduction of an Equal Pay Act along with a Sex Discrimination Act. Looking at what legal action has done for women journalists in the Western World may encourage feminists to start thinking about taking the whole matter to court to fight for women's rights. Sex discrimination proceedings have been fought and won against such companies as Reuters in the UK; NBC, Newsday, Newsweek and the Washington Post in the United States.

The New York Times has avoided going to court by making compensatory payments out of court and by promising to speed up the promotion of women. Kenyan media industries should also be forced to consider the introduction of an Affirmative Action in favour of women journalists, but my fear is that these demands cannot be expected to be made by the male-dominated Kenya Union of Journalists. May be the only other solution is to seriously look into the possibilities of professionalisation of Journalism in Kenya. This would make sure all professionals, both male and female, are treated equally by employers.

14. Intrusion into Grief and Shock

The code simply says in cases involving personal grief or shock, inquiries should be made with sensitivity and discretion. This is probably the most violated code in Kenyan journalism. Reporters, backed by their editors, seem to take great pleasure in publishing pictures of people in grief and personal shock. There is hardly a paper in Kenya that hesitates to publish shocking pictures of people in grief following accidents or violent crimes. Sometimes journalists go as far as taking pictures of injured people in hospitals accompanied by their relatives and medical personnel. Yet there has been no complaint from anybody about this wanton disregard of ethical principles.

Journalists in Kenya are in a field day when others are suffering. In Britain the primary concern of their code in times of grief or shock is the protection of vulnerable people from possible press intrusion. The Press Complaints Commission (PCC), and the industry’s code, recognize that at time of grief or shock – especially in cases of recent bereavement – the attention of the Press can be unwelcome.[1] Though Kenyan journalists are normally quite free to report details of crime, accidents and even court proceedings involving gruesome examination of causes of death, they have now made it a habit of publishing pictures of bereaved people weeping and screaming.

Sometimes it is not even possible to know whether the journalists are not welcome to make such intrusions because very often the grieved people talk to journalists even as they continue weeping and yelling. In Kenya mourning period is known as matanga [2] during which all sorts of activities take place in a bereaved homestead including dancing, singing and even drinking of home made beer. A reporter covering matanga normally is readily welcome to talk to anyone about the deceased and how he or she died. This will normally be discussed superficially without actually revealing the cause of death. The real cause of death is normally a well guarded secret particularly if it was the dreaded AIDS which is still regarded a shameful disease. There are many modern Africans who do not observe matanga and may not be quite willing to talk about their dead relative to a journalist. Whenever reporters come across such a situation they should respect the wishes of the bereaved.

Whether they succeed to obtaining a story or not their approach to the bereaved should always be done in a polite and most sympathetic manner. It is certainly a better way than writing something that will lead to getting a phone call complaining of published story that distresses people in grief.

Tulloch (2001) says nowhere in the conflict between professional values of journalists and ordinary people more apparent in the UK than in the Press coverage of families grieving or victims of accidents or crimes. He says attempts from the beginning of 1990s to forbid press intrusion into grief or shock have been steadily resisted by the British PCC whose voluntary code of conduct requires journalists to make inquiries and publish materials with “sympathy and discretion.”[3]

Though the Kenyan code makes similar demands there has never been any complaints despite the journalists’ open intrusion into grief and shock. Many will probably argue that the exposure of victims of crime and accidents are in the interest of the public. The fact that many relatives of the victims willingly talk to journalists is clear evidence that they welcome reporters and photographers. The apparent lack of empathy and compassion by journalists has never been a subject of discussion in professional circles including the Media Council of Kenya.

Culturally, grief is not a private matter in Kenya. When someone dies, the whole community mourns – his household, his clan, his tribe and his whole village. This is probably the reason why journalists plus their cameras are welcome to moan with the grieving people. Westerners watching our television and reading our dailies must be thinking that journalists here pay only lip-service to the part of the code of ethics that deals with intrusion into grief and shock. The cut throat competition among media houses means the usage of stories on grief are becoming the order of the day for purposes of boosting circulations and pointing out to the authorities the increase in crime and recklessness in driving of public vehicles.

In Britain Editors’ Code of Practice Committee was in 2006 very concerned with the way journalists also covered suicide not only because of intrusion into grief and shock but also because of prevention of copycat suicides. They therefore added a specific close to their code demanding care to be taken to avoid excessive details about the method used in suicide reported.[4]

The then Code Committee Chairman , Les Hiton said: “During our annual review, we receive convincing evidence from the Samaritans ( a public charity ) and others , that media reporting of suicide often prompted copycat cases. It is an international phenomenon.”[5] The Samaritans backed the move by Editors’ committee and its Chief Executive then said: “It means we will see more informative reporting of suicide as an issue, and far less about methods and sensational aspects which don’t help and at times can genuinely be harmful.”[6] The advice by Samaritans should be taken seriously by Kenyan journalists who in my view should emulate the British on this particular issue though we must always appreciate the public’s right to know.

May be the most difficult aspect of this code which will always confront journalists in Kenya is when there is a conflict between personal grief or shock and matters of public interest. When it is absolutely essential to report on matters involving grief the code only advices journalists to make inquiries “with sensitivity and discretion”; but what is sensitivity and discretion in journalism? The Collins English dictionary defines sensitivity as the state or quality of being sensitive. It says discretion is the quality of behaving and speaking in such a way as to avoid social embarrassment or distress.[7]

Buttry (2007) says journalists intrude because a news event thrusts a private person into the public eyes.[8] He argues that even when other considerations (call) for caution, journalists must find a way to publish information that illustrates a public debate or inform the public about matters of safety. He suggests that journalists should identify the people they write about unless strong valid considerations argue for protection of their privacy. Buttry is particularly worried about a phenomenon known as “suicide contagion” where attention to one suicide is believed to contribute to other suicides in the same community.[9]

In Kenya there are not ethical rules about the coverage of suicide. Every time someone commits suicide or even tries to and fails journalists write everything they know about the incidents without any self censorship or restrictions from editors.

An example of this is a story by Cyrus Ombati of The Standard who described in details how a policeman went berserk and shot dead a colleague and his two children before he tried to commit suicide. Ombati wrote: “He sustained a neck injury while trying to shoot himself. The bullet scratched trough the neck slightly injuring him”.[10] If Ombati had more information about how the suicide attempt was done there was nothing to stop him writing about it. In Kenya reporters can describe how suicides are committed without any public outcry. On April 28, 2007, The Standard published a story by Alex Kiprotich about Thomson’s Falls and why it remains an attractive option for “those who are out to commit suicide.”[11]

The story did not lead to an increase of reported suicide cases at the falls. Alarm bells would have been sounded if Kiptanui’s story was followed by high incidents of suicide cases. Very much like in Kenya the most intrusive practice in Australia is the televising of family member’s reaction to the news of death. Whereas journalists in Kenya routinely interview relatives of people who die in accidents and crimes, in Australia they risk losing their jobs for doing so. But Australia’s cultural values are different from ours.










[1] www.pcc.org.uk
[2] Matanga is a Swahili word but is now used in many communities in East Africa. It is the period during which the community joins the bereaved people to participate in all sorts of celebrations to respect the spirit of the dead person as well as to comfort the living relatives.
[3] Ibid
[4] Editors’ Code of Practice Committee “Press Information” of June 29, 2006.
[5] Ibid
[6] Samaritan Statement Number 219432 of 2007.
[7] Collins English Dictionary. Harper Collins Publishers. 2005.
[8] Buttry, Steve. “When Do Private Matters Become News”. American Press Institute Website. Visited in 2007.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ombati, Cyrus. “ Police Shoots Dead Colleague , Two Children” in The Standard of June 5, 2007
[11] Kiprotich, Alex. “Thomson’s Falls and Its Fatal Attraction” in The Standard of April 28, 2007.