By Shadrack Mbaka
Feb, 16, 2010
On Sunday afternoon as I sat reading the Sunday papers, Prime Minister Raila Odinga was delivering a statement from his Treasury offices that has brought the political situation in the country into spiky focus. The Prime Minister “suspended” Agriculture Minister William Ruto and Education Minister Sam Ongeri from duty for a period of three months to allow for investigations into the maize and free primary education affairs.
That move was consequently rejected by means of a statement from the State House indicating that the two ministers “constitutionally remain in office.” But it’s the manner in which television stations reported the story in their “Breaking News” that got me disturbed. Media as we know is the lifeblood of a society, charged with the role of disseminating information and shaping public opinion.
The electronic media, which the TV stations are part of, enjoy an edge as far as breaking news is concerned, whereas the dailies serve to inform the public how and why the events occurred. They even supply profound analysis on issues behind the news. The highlight appearing as subtitles below two TV stations stated thus: “Raila suspends Ruto and Ongeri for 3 months” without further explanation to that statement.
Of course the TV stations were still pursuing more details to the story, that included getting the clips for the story. And I found that to be in order. However, it’s the manner in which one other TV station went ahead to indicate right below its “Breaking News” that “But the appointing authority is president,” that perplexed me. This could be true.
I cannot even begin to dispute this fact, but for a television station that is charged with presenting news and views objectively, fairly and accurately without inserting own opinion, I found this place-in to be not only malicious but also in bad faith. After a few considerable minutes of “airplay” the line was withdrawn. Of course someone may have eventually discovered the danger that the line posed.
But the damage had already been done; the motive had already been achieved. It is such tendencies and actions that constitute bad journalism. The argument I wish to make is that the statement “but the appointing authority is president” could only be used if the TV station was quoting an expert opinion and that point needed to be made lucid.
But for a TV station to purport to provide expert opinion, falls short of the principles of good journalism which call upon the media to remain detached, fair, impartial, impersonal, unbiased and unprejudiced. That is what constitutes objectivity in journalist work. To do the opposite is to exercise subjectivity, which is based on personal bias.
Irresponsible journalism, it’s well known, has capacity to harmfully influence the public in a terribly potent manner and should be avoided at all costs. In that dissemination, what the television station attempted to do was to include subjective news values into independently verifiable facts as was contained in the statement that was read by the Prime Minister.
Whether the insertion was done inadvertently or by design is for the management of the station to debate, but for responsible journalism’s sake, it is proper that media practitioners observe the rules and guidelines as outlined for this trade.My disturbance emerges from the manner the media broke this story, it has nothing to do with who between the Principals, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga is right or wrong.
The national broadcaster, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation(KBC) television on the other hand denied citizens of Kenya their right to be informed when they failed to break the story. Of course various media outlets have their own editorial policies that determine the stance and what constitutes news, these are instrumental in creating the desired impact among their audiences, but it’s usually vital to strike a balance between the editorial policy and responsible journalism, at least for responsible journalism's sake.
Shadrack Mbaka is a communication student at Egerton University
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