[kictanet] Kenya: The Media is Not Innocent

Edith Adera eadera at idrc.or.ke
Thu Feb 14 13:22:27 EAT 2008


As we deliberate, I would like to draw our attention to a research study we
commissioned and a book produced entitled "The Media and the Rwanda
Genocide" edited by Allan Thompson with a Forward by H.E. Koffi Annan - it
is worth reading. You can get the full online copy at
http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-106013-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

But as we discuss this issue, we should not be blind to the fact that
informal networks via sms may have been even more lethal than mainstream
media....and the speed at which information was transmitted using this
medium was much faster than any media house can rely. Will that be factored
into the evaluation?

regards


 

-----Original Message-----
From: kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+eadera=idrc.or.ke at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf
Of alice
Sent: 13 February 2008 10:10
To: eadera at idrc.or.ke
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Kenya: The Media is Not Innocent

Dear all,

The warring parties,  in this conflict including international media and 
their villainy  has received  a lot of both local and worldwide 
attention and does not need repetition.

But the role of our local media has escaped scrutiny all because they 
monopolise local public discourse to the exclusion of dissent. Too many 
Kenyans have died, so much blood split, tears cried, women and girls 
raped, property and livelihoods lost. Our media can not deny that news 
reporting especially pre and during elections acquired new definitions 
providing room for a bit of fiction that did irreparable damage to our 
communal fabric but also arbitrarily over hyped and created the tribal 
issues.

Granted, media would say they were just reporting facts, but facts have 
a complex character. They can be neutral, volatile and sometimes both 
unhelpful and helpful.  It is a fact but restraint in reporting some 
issues would localise any damage the fact could do to communal harmony. 
An event could fizzle out as just a law and order problem and when 
temperatures come down might even permit community leaders to sit down 
and negotiate peace, I am not denying our conflict now the complexities 
of the issues surrounding the conflict, but when facts are likely to 
convulse communities, reporters need discretion in transmitting them. 
That is the essence of social responsibility theory that requires the 
media to share the blame for adverse effects of their reporting.

You may argue that the media holds a mirror to society and if the 
reflection is an ugly one, it can do little about it. And yes censorship 
does give rise to rumors far more dangerous than honest, truthful 
reporting. But in our case I do not think that the benefit of truthful 
reporting covered all facts. Reporters/editors and everyone involved 
threw caution to the wind. Media reporters/editors have to remember that 
they are not just journalists or editors, they are members of the Kenyan 
society that in the end bears the cost of their reporting.

But most importantly now is what role for the media in post conflict 
reconstruction?

The media should create space for communication among communities, 
societal conversation, provides tools and    strategies to manage and 
process the myths, images, collective memories, fears and needs that 
shape perceptions that drive our behavior. Collective storytelling into 
public acts of healing, conflict resolution. Publicly shame perpetrators 
of violence and shaming should be separated from blaming. Media  must 
AVOID sensational stories that retraumatise us or reducing testimonies 
to mere lists of atrocities. Careful reporting and commentaries must 
facilitate our national healing.

Please note that the above views are personal and not a reflection of 
any of the organisations I am affiliated to.

best
alice

Farida Karoney wrote:
> Guys,
>
>  Pardon me for joining the discussion rather late in the day. I do not
think 
> that blanket condemnation of the media is useful in moving the Country 
> forward.
>
> I do agree with Kanja that  we need to audit all the players in order to 
> establish where the rain started beating us. More importantly,  we need to

> ask ourselves as groups and as individuals what we can do so  that our 
> Country can never again find itself in such a bind.
>
> As a practising journalist and an editor, I can confirm that the
mainstream 
> media did alot in the way of self regulation. Many of the things that were

> available to us yet were never aired nor printed are indeed shocking.
>
> Let us not  be quick to condemn the messenger.
> I think that by now,  we all know that there are issues much deeper that
the 
> disputed presidential elections which the Country needs to address in a 
> wholesome manner
>
> regards
> Farida
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kanja Waruru" <kanjawaruru at yahoo.com>
> To: <fkaroney at ktnkenya.com>
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:48 AM
> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Kenya: The Media is Not Innocent
>
>
> Hi,
> Please allow me to comment on this matter and
> apologize for dragging you back to an issue that had
> been posted and quickly dismissed.
>
> The media did not operate in isolation during and
> after the elections. And before we point fingers at
> the media and blame it for everything under the sun,
> perhaps we should first try to understand who the real
> players were in the elections and the general genesis
> of the crises. And in doing so we may need to ask
> ourselves these questions.
>
> What role did politicians play in this crises?
> What about the churches and mosques?
> What about the security forces?
> What about the Electoral Commission?
> And finally what role did the media play?
>
> My view is that we need to have a task force as
> suggested by the minister of information probably
> under the media council of Kenya to audit all these
> players, only then can we truly say who was innocent
> and who was guilty.
>
> But i would also like to bring in another issue.
> During the elections the media was exercising the self
> regulation rule and a lot of the stories that were
> filed during this period were censored because they
> were hate speeches and issues not fit for printing but
> we thought it would all die out after the elections
> and things would also get back to normal.
>
> Now on hindsight we ask ourselves should we have
> censored those stories or should we have reported them
> as presented?
>
> i will be happy to hear your views the above.
> cheers.
> Kanja
>
>
>
>
> --- alice <alice at apc.org> wrote:
>
>   
>> http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=41049
>>
>> KENYA:
>> The Media Is Not Innocent
>> Kwamboka Oyaro
>>
>> *NAIROBI, Feb 2 (IPS) - The media was partly blamed
>> for the Rwandan
>> genocide 14 years ago which left nearly one million
>> people dead in 100
>> days. "Kill the Inkotanyi [cockroaches]!" a local
>> radio station urged
>> its listeners at the time. *
>>
>> "30 Days in Words and Pictures: Media Response in
>> Kenya During the
>> Election Crisis" -- a workshop organised here last
>> week by
>> California-based media advocacy group Internews --
>> enabled media
>> professionals to conduct a "self-audit" of the role
>> local media played
>> in the post-election violence. The audit revealed
>> that media -- 
>> especially vernacular radio stations -- might be
>> partly to blame for the
>> on-going violence sparked off by the announcement of
>> Mwai Kibaki as
>> winner of the Dec. 27 elections.
>>
>> The violence has reportedly claimed over 1,000 lives
>> and displaced some
>> 250,000 people since the December election.
>>
>> David Ochami, a commissioner with the Media Council
>> of Kenya, told IPS
>> that long before the elections were held, vernacular
>> radio stations had
>> ignited ethnic consciousness among the listeners
>> "making them support
>> leaders from their own tribe and harbour bad
>> feelings about people from
>> other communities."
>>
>> "The ethnic hate our radio station was propagating
>> about those from
>> outside the community was unbelievable. I can't
>> repeat any of those
>> expressions at this forum," said a journalist with a
>> vernacular radio
>> station. "The unfortunate thing is we let these
>> callers speak vile and
>> laughed about it."
>>
>> "We took sides in the issue and we became
>> subjective, forgetting our
>> professional tenet of objectivity and neutrality. In
>> fact, this
>> polarization was so bad in the newsrooms that some
>> broadcast journalists
>> refused to cover or read news that wasn't favourable
>> to the candidate or
>> party they supported," said a journalist.
>>
>> In fact, leading up to the elections the local media
>> conveyed
>> inflammatory campaign messages as advertisers'
>> announcements.
>>
>> "Both print and broadcast media put money ahead of
>> responsibility by
>> accepting and conveying paid-for hate material,"
>> Mildred Baraza, a
>> Nairobi- based journalist told IPS. "This could have
>> incited the
>> audience, and when they got a chance they avenged as
>> a result of the
>> pre-election messages," she said.
>>
>> Redemtor Atieno, another Nairobi-based journalist
>> who also helped to
>> organise the workshop, is confident that the media's
>> biased reporting
>> contributed to the mayhem in the country.
>>
>> "Professionalism was thrown to the dogs as tribe and
>> partisanship
>> carried the day. We failed our audience by conveying
>> interests of
>> politicians without questioning the impact of our
>> stories," Atieno told
>> IPS.
>>
>> Participants at the workshop also blamed media
>> owners for playing a
>> major role in encouraging the violence. "They had
>> vested interests in
>> either camp of the political divide," a reporter
>> with Kenya Broadcasting
>> Corporation (KBC) said, adding that he and his
>> colleagues wanted to tell
>> the real story but they couldn't because the stories
>> could portray the
>> government in a bad light.
>>
>> "We had beautiful clips and stories from the field,
>> but we went back to
>> the newsroom knowing that the story would never be
>> used," he said.
>>
>> Even privately owned media owners who backed
>> different political parties
>> had a hand in the stories that were carried. If it
>> was about the party
>> they supported, they exaggerated the story and
>> generally depicted the
>> opponents in negative ways.
>>
>> "The media organizations refrained from telling the
>> world the truth
>> about what was happening," Ochami told IPS. "There
>> has been a tendency
>> of portraying the Kenyan crisis as a problem between
>> two ethnic groups
>> -- where one [Kibaki's Kikuyu] is victimized by
>> another [opposition
>> leader Raila Odinga's Luo]. Any other story on the
>> contrary is
>> downplayed or ignored," Ochami explained.
>>
>> There are those who believe the media is innocent
>> and the violence
>> currently rocking the country was bound to happen
>> anyway -- that
>> historical economic inequalities among the Kenyan
>> communities had to
>> boil over at some point in time.
>>
>> "The public vented long bottled-up anger. It was
>> meant to explode
>> whether the media encouraged it or not," said a
>> journalist at the
>> workshop. "Many people voted last year for change
>> and it was a protest
>> vote against years of inequalities. When they
>> realized this would not
>> happen when Kibaki was declared winner, they
>> exploded."
>>
>> Mitch Odera the moderator of the workshop and media
>> consultant said one
>> of the causes of Kenya's unrest is the immaturity of
>> its democracy.
>> "There hasn't been competitive democracy in our
>> country. That is our
>> problem," Odera told the participants at the
>> workshop.
>>
>> The government was also blamed for the chaos because
>> it slapped a
>> blanket ban on live broadcasters soon after violence
>> broke out in the
>> country.
>>
>> "The ban did not extend to international media
>> including the Internet
>> which many Kenyans accessed and spread the word.
>> This led to skewed
>> information and hence panic and more destruction and
>> deaths," said one
>> journalist from the electronic media.
>>
>> The Editors Guild -- an organization of editors from
>> all media
>> organizations -- went to court this week to
>> challenge the ban on
>> broadcasters.
>>
>> Participants at the workshop also heard the first
>> hand experiences of
>> journalists who covered the post election violence.
>> Practioners
>> complained about threats to their lives and
>> complained that they felt
>> segregated from the rest of the country.
>>
>> As the workshop was taking place participants were
>> well aware that
>> several political writers and analysts had received
>> death threats for
>> writing stories that were viewed as unfavourable
>> towards the government.
>>
>> (END/2008)
>>
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>> This message was sent to: kanjawaruru at yahoo.com
>>
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> === message truncated ===
>
>
>
>
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