#IStandWithLinus: Media freedom must be jealously protected

Nasa leader Raila Odinga holds the Bible during a rally in Homa Bay on January 27, 2018. Journalists do not go to school to study how to make life easy for politicians or how to massage the egos of governments or opposition political parties, writes Mildred Ngesa. PHOTO | BRIAN ONGORO | AFP

What you need to know:

  • It has taken immense courage and, in my view, studious valour for Kenya Editors Guild chairman Linus Kaikai to dare the eye of the storm and speak out the hard truths of how the Jubilee government is embarking on muzzling freedom of the press.
  • There is a rather curious wave of repression sniffing into the country that would be detrimental to our perceived progressive democracy.
  • It is understandable that the Jubilee government, in this standoff with Nasa after the 2017 elections, would feel the presumed knee-jerk reaction to go for whatever space that would seem to antagonise its path to governing.
  • We do stories because we could be the only platform of truth and justice that the people may depend on. We do stories to transform lives and change the world for the better.
  • In Kaikai's passionate appeal to all journalists to carry out their work diligently and report impartially on all matters of public interest, he crowned the definite link to democracy that is currently under serious threat in our country.

The job of the media is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable – Finley Peter Dunne 1867 -1936

First and foremost, let it be clear that gagging the media never won accolades for a tyrannical perception hell bent to govern.

When a country is at a crossroads, where dissenting voices are begging to be heard and where a people are increasingly getting disillusioned by a government decision to act on that descent, then we have a major problem.

Linus Kaikai, an exemplary journalist of repute and the current chairperson of the Kenya Editors Guild, would not, by virtue of his professionalism as we know it, cry wolf just for the sake of it.

It has taken immense courage and, in my view, studious valour for Kaikai to dare the eye of the storm and speak out the hard truths of how the Jubilee government is embarking on muzzling freedom of the press.

NO THREATS TO MEDIA?

So we were not initially privy to the details of this concerning meeting at State House last week where apparently the Jubilee government led by President Uhuru Kenyatta took a jibe at the media, warned them against covering Nasa’s planned “swearing in” of Raila Odinga and threatened to shut down any station that dares to do so.

On Tuesday, January 30, those very same threats indeed came to pass with the shutting down of Citizen TV and NTV and god knows who else will follow!
There was almost instant opposition to Kakai’s statement. The protest, interestingly, came from the Guild’s vice-chairperson, Samuel Maina.

Maina works for the state broadcaster KBC and according to him, “At no point were any threats issued to media houses or any ultimatums given on how we choose to broadcast matters of public interest, or those relating to the current political situation in the country”.

Now that the TV stations have been shut down, could this then refresh Maina’s memory on what might have actually transpired at State House?

IRON-FISTED REACTION
There is a rather curious wave of repression sniffing into the country that would be detrimental to our perceived progressive democracy.

Where a dissenting voice is determined to be heard, there seems to be a choreographed iron-fisted reaction to clamp it down. Where the space for free expression and access to information is guaranteed then it becomes the direct target of those who want to suppress it.

The media in this country, though it continues to be politically demonized, has worked tirelessly to ensure the democratic space is safeguarded and accessible. In Africa today, Kenya is one of the luminary countries with a commendable and vibrant media through whose crusades a trail of social, political and economic anomalies have been unveiled, pursued and resolved.

Casual interactions with media colleagues from the continent and beyond are marked by awe and admiration for how the media in Kenya has braved the tumultuous waters of political interference and media capture and delivered on its mandate.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

True, there have been situations where the media should have done better. Nonetheless, much is in what the media has actually achieved.

It is understandable that the Jubilee government, in this standoff with Nasa after the 2017 elections, would feel the presumed knee-jerk reaction to go for whatever space that would seem to antagonise its path to governing. But it is even more dangerous to lurch at the media and strangle its freedoms as we are witnessing today.

Former US President Barack Obama admitted right from the start of his tenure that he did acknowledge the fact that the media and the government do make strange bedfellows. And rightfully so because this is indeed how the relationship should be between the leadership and the watchdog.

During his administration and right through those notorious annual White House Correspondents’ Association Dinners, Obama opened himself up to media scrutiny and took media criticism of his leadership in good stride and with a transparent response to make things better for his country.

WHY BE AFRAID OF MEDIA SCRUTINY?

He laughed off his gaffes and humanised the media approach towards his government in a manner no other president of the United States had done. His successor has since rolled back all of those gains and some in an appalling approach that is shifting global media dynamics in multiple ways. The explanation here is simple: If a government has nothing to hide, then media scrutiny will be music to its ears.

Many transformational moments in the history of this country have been pioneered and sustained by the media. Many of those currently in the top leadership of the Jubilee government ascended to power through interacting and relying on the media in one way or the other.

In fact, it was commendable that President Kenyatta would deem it fit to appoint a senior journalist, with a significant media management record, to manage the obviously arduous Lands docket. The president saw it fit that a journalist should take up the role. How then does his very same establishment flip to the extreme opposite and attack media freedom?

WE WRITE TO CHANGE THE WORLD

It should be noted that contrary to persistent demonising of the Fourth Estate, as we have witnessed in the recent past, journalism is a certified and accomplished profession of which no amount of coercion can wish away. Many journalists worth the title pursue the career for multiple noble reasons way beyond just having the extra zeroes on their pay slips.

Journalists do not go to school to study how to make life easy for politicians or how to massage the egos of governments or opposition political parties. We do not write or do stories because stories are cute. We do stories because stories matter. We do stories because we owe it to the people to tell these stories. We do stories because we could be the only platform of truth and justice that the people may depend on. We do stories to transform lives and change the world for the better.

PASSIONATE APPEAL

The Kenya Editors Guild, like any professional body, invokes the ethics and guidelines of the profession from a code of conduct that is well known to its admirers and critics. The same is true of the Media Council of Kenya, the Kenya Union of Journalists, the Association of Media Women in Kenya, the Kenya Correspondents Association and several other media forums that congregate to uphold media professionalism in this country.

I would like to believe that when Kaikai, the Guild chairman, appended his signature to caution the government against gagging the media, he understood to the tee just what is at stake when the media in a country is taken hostage by the state. In his passionate appeal to all journalists to carry out their work diligently and report impartially on all matters of public interest, he crowned the definite link to democracy that is currently under serious threat in our country. For this reason, #IStandWithLinus.

Mildred Ngesa is a media and communications professional.