Regional media caught pants down

Professionals love to present themselves as members of exclusive elitist clubs doing so much to make the world a much better place. Lawyers even call themselves the learned ones. Doctors, engineers and even teachers are all so proud of what they do and will not spare a moment to let you know about this. Journalists take this to another level by claiming that the media industry is actually the “Fourth Estate.” In other words their importance matches that of the judiciary, executive and legislature. And because the judiciary, executive and legislature check each other to achieve the proverbial balance akin to the three-stone cooking place, the media too claims to be a check for the rest. To cap it up, the media practitioners love to present a snow white image of themselves as the vanguards of society, always keen to expose the corrupt and speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. In doing this, the bad stories about the media practitioners themselves are often shelved in a bid to uphold the clean image. Unfortunately, the recent weeks have seen this image dented by allegations of corruption and the so called khaki envelope syndrome. Yes the media is not as clean as we are made to believe. Just like any other profession, journalism is laden with corrupt members, impersonators and simply unprincipled fellows. In Rwanda there is the phenomenon of ‘Giti’ that is now being fought so as to clean up the industry. This refers to the practice of journalists demanding kickbacks from sources before covering news stories. Surprisingly this is more a problem created by the sources than the journalists and fighting it may call for a two-pronged approach. Many times a journalist is asked by a member of public how much it will cost to cover a story. The same syndrome is said to be at epidemic levels in the Kenyan media according to the bi-monthly Expression Today magazine that reviews regional media. The latest edition of the magazine highlights the practice of editors and reporters receiving monetary kickbacks to produce favourable coverage for politicians and business people and entities. The line between being facilitated to cover a story and being bribed to write a good story keeps on becoming thinner and thinner. No wonder these days, corporate censorship is said to be worse than state inspired censorship. Sometime last year, MTN Uganda cut its advertising deals with The New Vision newspaper over a story that highlighted the network problems that subscribers were experiencing as it was upgrading its equipment. For fear of losing the huge advertising revenue, the press often stays away from anything negative concerning the big telecom players and beverage companies. The bad media image was made worse by the revelations that some Ugandan journalists were involved in an extortion scam. Several journalists working for FM radio stations and Daily Monitor were arrested over allegations of extorting over Uganda Shs40 million from the Managing Director of the country’s water utility company. The journalists were arrested just two days before two other journalists and a lawyer were arrested for the same crime of extortion targeting the Permanent Secretary of the Works ministry. In both cases the journalists were demanding the money in order to ‘kill’ negative stories about their victims. The news from Kampala has left a huge dent on the profession that is supposed to fight corruption and misuse of office by reporting balanced news. It leaves the public with doubts over the credibility of the media in general. Once this credibility is lost, then the public is compelled to turn to the rumour mill since the line between the two will have been blurred by the unprofessional acts of a few members. My general take on this whole thing is that we should not forget that the people in the media are part of the general society and sometimes a reflection of that society. One veteran journalist once argued that you can tell the level of a country’s development by just glancing at the newspaper stands at the airport. Since journalists are part of society the efforts towards moral uprightness should not be exclusively aimed at the journalists but the society in general. In Uganda and Kenya, corruption levels are said to be very high depending on which report you lay your hands on. The media in these countries therefore cannot be spared the corruption that afflicts rest of the nation. It is also a fact that media personnel are often poorly paid. Although this cannot be an excuse for abandoning professionalism, it cannot be ignored in the fight against these vices. The public also should continue to expose these rotten apples as the media gets its act together. ssenyonga@gmail.com