[kictanet] how positive can foreign media be?

Tue Mar 12 00:15:57 EAT 2013

Sorry for the silence - I went to dig up the report on corruption in the
Kenyan media and ended up writing a blog post about it.

Here's the report -- well worth reading alongside any complaints about
foreign media.

http://www.africog.org/reports/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20AfriCOG%20Investigative%20journalism%20fellowship%202010.pdf

The vast majority of Kenyans get their news from local media, not from CNN.
CNN did not organise the violence in the Rift Valley. But I do believe a Mr
Sang had been taken to court for that (although I understand it's not a
proper court, and I also think he's the only one who was taken to court so
far at all). Also, just focusing on the election days is short-sighted -
the period running up to it matters just as much. Bear that in mind when
you read the report I linked to.

Blog piece here:
http://andreabohnstedt.blogspot.com/2013/03/post-election-thoughts-pet-silence-or.html

I generally like Katrina Manson's pieces in the FT a lot, and she's been
particularly good at following up on the ICT failures. BBC , Reuters,
Bloomberg usually seem useful (and have local staff, I think). Not a
blanket endorsement, but generally sound. I'm sure you can pull out pieces
that aren't ideal.

Michela Wrong is one of those who flew in, but she's covered Kenya for a
long time, and I like her writing - she was on the International Herald
Tribune Latitude site with election blog posts.

The guy who wrote a piece for the New Yorker on the debate, and for Foreign
Policy on Odinga, got off to a good start and isn't a a bad writer, but he
doesn't have the depth of knowledge for such pieces, so he messed up on
details. Kenyan politics are geek territory.

My computer currently won't open the SA Times, so I can't fish out their
recent Kenya piece, but can send it round when I find the link.

In the past few days, I've also seen a number of good pieces on the
'tyranny of peace' from Kneyans - not everyone thinks that it was the right
approach. Acknowledging diversity in thought - e.g. Muthoni Wanyeki on the
unnecessary trade off between peace and justice:
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Peace-vs-truth-A-story-of-unnecessary-trade-offs/-/434750/1715496/-/pnxq5h/-/index.html

And a blogger on the 'lobotomy of peace':
http://gathara.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-monsters-under-house.html?m=1

As for panic shopping: it was a local friend who kicked me into gear. Can't
harm, he argued. As I said: the queues were long and very mixed.

On 11 March 2013 21:55, Warigia Bowman <warigia at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Andrea
>
> Bitte sehr.
>
> Please send us the thoughtful coverage that has occurred since March 9 so
> we can compliment them.
>
> I am technically foreign. Of course I will apply the same amount of
> scrutiny and criticism to the local media.
>
> Kind regards, Warigia
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 1:52 PM, Andrea Bohnstedt <
> andrea.bohnstedt at ratio-magazine.com> wrote:
>
>> Maybe Kenya would have been important enough anyway to cover the
>> elections? And I know of many Kenyans who also stocked up on food as well
>> (when they haven't left the country) - you just needed to spend a bit of
>> time in supermarket queues before the elections to see that it was a very
>> solid mix of everyone who lives here.
>>
>> Any Kenyan would rightly take offense with being wholesale painted as
>> tribal murderers based on 1,500 people having died in 2007/early 08. But
>> what you do is turn around and do exactly the same thing to 'foreign
>> media'.
>>
>> Yes, there were completely idiotic, wrong, stereotypical articles, and
>> they should be ridiculed every single one. But there were also many
>> competent, insightful, sober pieces. And there are many members of the
>> international who don't just swoop in for elections, but actually live
>> here. Maybe we can judge them one by one rather than condemning all of them
>> wholesale?
>>
>> In this forum, it will probably be a tricky argument to make that some of
>> the international media actually still (soberly, factually) reported where
>> the local media just shut up. So I won't make it.
>>
>> And in the meantime, I hope that everyone who's so irritated with the
>> international media will apply the same amount of scrutiny and criticism to
>> the local media and the corruption inside that system.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 11 March 2013 20:18, Warigia Bowman <warigia at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Personally, I am feeling very angry at the foreign media. Thanks Evans
>>> for this shocking ridiculousness. we need to expose them!
>>>
>>> I wrote this yesterday.
>>>
>>>
>>> http://digitaldemocracykenya.blogspot.com/2013/03/feeling-frustrated-with-change-in-press.html
>>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 5:30 AM, Evans Ikua <ikua.evans at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>>  Wow, this is a gem from Time:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "At this election, with a new 2010 constitution, and a new electoral
>>>> body with a new — though not glitch-free — electronic voting system,
>>>> Kenyans’ determination to hold a peaceful election has been palpable. *The
>>>> popular mood has also been notably anti-Western. Foreign diplomats
>>>> have been warned of blood-curdling revenge should they interfere in the poll
>>>> *. *Foreign journalists have been publicly ridiculed and denounced as
>>>> prejudiced if they predicted chaos and disaster.* And a central
>>>> message of most candidates’ campaigns was strident, patriotic
>>>> self-determination."
>>>>
>>>> Read more:
>>>> http://world.time.com/2013/03/09/kenyas-election-what-uhuru-kenyattas-victory-means-for-africa/#ixzz2NE3fBw4v
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> *----------------------------------------------------
>>>> Kind Regards,
>>>> Evans Ikua,*
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr. Warigia Bowman
>>> Assistant Professor
>>> Clinton School of Public Service
>>> University of Arkansas
>>> wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.edu
>>> http://democratizingegypt.blogspot.com
>>> -------------------------------------------------
>>> View my research on my SSRN Author page:
>>> http://ssrn.com/author=1479660
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>>
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>>>
>>> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
>>> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
>>> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
>>> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>>>
>>> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
>>> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
>>> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
>>> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt>
>> Publisher
>>
>> www.ratio-magazine.com
>> www.africa-assets.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Dr. Warigia Bowman
> Assistant Professor
> Clinton School of Public Service
> University of Arkansas
> wbowman at clintonschool.uasys.edu
> http://democratizingegypt.blogspot.com
> -------------------------------------------------
> View my research on my SSRN Author page:
> http://ssrn.com/author=1479660
> --------------------------------------------------
>

-- 
Andrea Bohnstedt <http://ke.linkedin.com/in/andreabohnstedt>
Publisher

www.ratio-magazine.com
www.africa-assets.com
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