Picking on a painful speck in my eye

Zolamber Gatary, Sunny Nayombaa, Barury Kulovas, Sam Chmimana and Arthur Osamoah, all senior personalities in the local media society, congratulations gentlemen, on your brand new names from the mighty Al-Jazeera documentary journalists. It’s exactly a year ago since the Al-Jazeera filming crew came to our newsroom looking for a journalist to interview for their now airing documentary, ‘Rwanda: From hatred to reconciliation’ with a focus on the role of the media. I was in the newsroom that day; it was a cold afternoon; that’s why Sunny Ntayombya, who was interviewed, was wearing a jacket. Throughout the forty minutes of recording, we were placed under some kind of hostage situation to provide the most possible serenity for the crew to record flawlessly; we were told to shut up, keep our movements under control and if possible, remain seated until they were done. We did as told. After they were done, I remember Sunny, knowing that his surname, Ntayombya, was likely to give the Aljazeera crew problems, got a pen and wrote down his full name in a notebook provided by one of the producers. I can imagine that all the other guys interviewed did the same. It was Wednesday afternoon, we were all in the newsroom and our wall screens were coincidentally tuned into the Al-Jazeera channel when the documentary went live. There was a mixture of banter and cheers when Sunny’s face filled the wide screen and then we noticed that his surname had been altered; then it emerged each of the other interviewees had issues with the way their names were spelt. We were all genuinely disappointed. Among the basic things emphasized to journalism students is to always get people’s names right; it’s a measure of accuracy and points to how serious a journalist is, in their reporting. I visited Al-Jazeera America studios in New York last year and to be honest with you, was blown away by the sheer professional sophistication on display, the same display I witnessed when I visited the 60 Minutes studios at CBS. Now, 60 Minutes is the oldest and most-watched news magazine on American television and its Executive Producer Jeff Fager told me, there’s no room for any mistakes on the show. “We like to think that by the time you get a slot on 60 Minutes, one has had enough opportunities to make mistakes on lesser important assignments and shows,” said Fager. But they say mistakes are part of being human so I will rest my case on the Al-Jazeera crew because, being human myself, I have had my fair share of mistakes. Now, do you think journalists in Rwanda are corrupt? Well, according to a survey sponsored by Appolinaire Mupiganyi’s Transparency International Rwanda (TIR), bribery is the leading form of corruption in the media industry. Unfortunately, TIR’s study is not backed by concrete cases but rather based on the perception of some 1,468 respondents who said they thought offering money in return for favours is common in the media. Kick backs for adverts, cash in exchange for favorable reporting or ‘killing’ a negative story all together as well as sexual favours in return for job placements, appeared to be the leading forms of misconduct in our industry. If this is true, it’s definitely unfortunate. I will talk for myself. As a journalist, the biggest asset in my possession is the trust the public has in what I write or report and my biggest fear as a journalist is to lose my credibility on suspicion that I am compromised. Journalism is safe when the public can trust the journalist to present the information fairly without openly taking sides of either of the parties involved in an incident and we should strive to keep it that way. Personally, I can proudly say that I will never ask for or accept a favour to tell a good story or keep one hidden from the public because it’s embarrassing to someone, unless, of course, circumstances were beyond my own control. As far as I remember, I have never sought a bribe to either tell or not tell a story and it’s a value I believe is worth keeping. But perception is tricky. At times, mistakes on our part, as journalists, have sometimes led our readers to wrongly perceive us to be compromised; I have been a victim of this, not long ago. You might remember my mishap earlier this year, regarding my reporting on the Monkey officer saga where my commentary writing caused confusion with my news reporting leaving some of you suspicious. It remains one of the hardest days of my career. My commentary was run, traditionally on Sunday before the interview it was based on, which would run the next morning; I still remember some of your comments, stinging comments. It was a mistake. So if the public perceives journalists to be compromised, it may not necessarily be true but there is definitely reason for the presence of that perception and that’s what we should look out for and seek to address for public trust is the only treasure we should strive to protect. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Picking on a painful speck in my eye