Is it patriotism or political propaganda Mr. Kwamchetsi? I wish to respond to Kwamchetsi’s article in the daily nation dated 26th October, 2013, in which he claims that the media needs to be gagged by putting in place a body to check on what journalist write before publication to ensure patriotic journalism. Having read and analyzed the contents of the article whose thesis is nothing but a request for government friendly Journalism, his criticism carries a lot of political propaganda and misrepresentation of information calculated to achieve personal interests – he didn’t write in the best interest of Kenyans because the kind of value and beliefs he is trying to popularize by retraining journalists e.g. patriotism, being on the side of the government or terrorism, wearing of flag- pins, neck scarf, and baseball caps are the reflections of his personal interests crafted and hidden in an ideology he calls, “patriotic journalism “ Everybody including young children knows quite well that his Excellency the president Uhuru Kenyatta was the winner in the just concluded elections, however, the behavior of IEBC’s failure to send Biometric voters registration kits to majority of the polling stations was seen as a calculated move to ridge those elections in favour of Uhuru so as to achieve the 50+1 threshold. It is important for the writer to appreciate the fact that some of the kits were defective, hence they were not used in many of the polling stations, a situation that made some people unable to vote. With all these complains, the writer still wanted the journalists to praise the IEBC for doing a good job? The issue of the fire outbreak at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is another concern of the writer. Everyone blamed the government for failing to send fire fighters to the site on time. It was also not in order for the soldiers to use ordinary pails to collect water and use it for putting off the fire. In my view, it was in order for the media to make enquiries as to why the government failed to put up a fire fighting department with modern equipments and qualified staff at such an important International institution? When journalists made such enquires, it was believed that they were embarrassing the government. What embarrassment? I wish to caution the writer and his colleagues that Kenyans will not allow them to take away the democratic gains that we have so far achieved after 40 years of repression and authoritarian rule where government functionaries used to encroach on the freedoms and independence of the media making it look like a rubber stamp for its decision making. Despite the fact that the writer is a political scientist as well as a journalist, I wish to take it for granted that he is either ignorant, proud or simply un informed about the freedoms and independence of the media as enshrined in the constitution in so far a production, circulation and dissemination of information is concerned. Article 4 (a) of the new constitution gives the media independence to determine its own editorial contents, hence is practically impossible for anybody to check on the excesses of journalists as long as the information they write and circulate does not affect the freedoms and rights of others. Even though our journalists may make mistakes in the course of their work, It is important for the writer to know that they are human beings who can be corrected but with some decorum. Retraining them by another private person is not a solution but an abuse to their profession. The government should appreciate the fact that our journalist are some of the best in the world and that is why they have always scooped the best international awards for exemplary coverage of issues in politics, environment, culture, economy and public sphere- that is exactly what they were doing at the westgate when terrorist attacked and some of them were shot dead in the process. Can anyone afford to be paid to die? It is unfortunate that despite the good work done by our journalist, they are still branded un patriotic and semi- illiterates who should be retrained once again. The writer’s complains that journalists were paid to cover what they did is even criminal on the grounds that he has not given satisfactory information as to who paid them, how much, where, and for what purpose? Yours faithfully, Christopher Amasava Email :christopheramasava@yahoo Tel: 0725 909 011
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 08:06:09 +0000
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