Is it fair to allow a few individuals to hog the letters-to-the-editor forum?

Kenyans are reading newspapers that headline on the US President Barack Obama's re-election on November 7, 2012 in Nairobi. Many newspapers limit the number of letters one person can publish. FILE AFP PHOTO | SIMON MAINA

What you need to know:

  • Statistics show that two writers heavily dominate the letters-to-the-editor forum. Between January 1 and September 24, 2015, X.N. Iraki had 180 articles published in The Cutting Edge.
  • That works out to an average of one item nearly every one-and-a-half days. Joe Musyoki, with 84 letters and articles to The Cutting Edge, had one letter or item published around every three days.
  • Five other writers — Enock Onsando (40 letters), Ruth Gituma (34), Bernard Amaya (33), Lucy Ann (15), and Justin Nkaranga (14), had one letter or article to the Cutting Edge published nearly every seven, eight, 18, and 19 days respectively. That is still a lot of dominance.

Njoroge Waweru said in his email of April 6, 2015: “Dear Mr Ouma, I’ve for the last 15 years been struggling to write letters to the editor but none was ever published. I’m terribly worried albeit I keep on writing and praying I can be lucky one day to see my letter published.

"Mr Oduor, I’m humbly requesting you if I can be writing to you if only you advise on what’s wrong with my letters so that I work to improve my writing in case that appears to be the problem.

“I’ve previously lodged my complaint with the Public Editor. He asked me for the recent letters, which I’ve sent and he told me that I write very well. In fact, he couldn’t believe that I’ve no formal education.

“He told me one doesn’t need a university degree to write. He asked me to appeal to you personally since you are the editor of that page. What can I do to have my letters published, even one in a year? Kindly assist me.”

Mr Oduor Ouma, a senior sub-editor who passed away on June 29 — may he rest in peace and love — responded: “Dear Mr Waweru, I must agree with our Public Editor that your writing, compared to many we come across, seems superb. Apart from the sheer volume of letters we receive, the other main considerations are topicality.

“Write about something in the news or a debate on letters page, or respond to a fellow reader. Make it non-abusive and balanced and e-mail back to us... Good luck.”

Earlier, responding to another reader who complained that his letter was butchered, Mr Ouma said, “the original letter was quite long for the space available”.

Another editor, Mr Henry Gekonde, said: “I work with Oduor and I agree with most of what he says. But we part ways when he starts talking about lack of space. 

"If space were so limited, why do we see the same names on the letters pages over and over again?... It seems to me that our system favours the prolific writers at the expense of occasional writers who might have something profound to say.”

THE LETTERS PAGES

Mr Wallace Kantai, an editor with NTV, echoes the sentiments: “On what basis do people make it into ‘The Watchman’ column, and how do they not?”

Readers love and value the letters-to-the-editor forum and its variants (“The Cutting Edge” by the Watchman and “Short Takes”).

The forum is supposed to be the most democratic in the newspaper. They provide free space for readers to air their views.

Many readers, however, have accused editors of allowing a few individuals to hog the forum.

Statistics show that two writers heavily dominate the letters-to-the-editor forum. Between January 1 and September 24, 2015, X.N. Iraki had 180 articles published in The Cutting Edge.

That works out to an average of one item nearly every one-and-a-half days. Joe Musyoki, with 84 letters and articles to The Cutting Edge, had one letter or item published around every three days.

Five other writers — Enock Onsando (40 letters), Ruth Gituma (34), Bernard Amaya (33), Lucy Ann (15), and Justin Nkaranga (14) — had one letter or article to the Cutting Edge published nearly every seven, eight, 18, and 19 days respectively. That is still a lot of dominance.

Many newspapers limit the number of letters one person can publish. The Los Angeles Times generally does not publish more than one letter from a single person every two months.

The Times of Northwest Indiana, like most other newspapers, restricts writers to one letter a month.

Mr Gekonde notes that telling readers to keep writing and praying is not enough. He dismisses the argument that readers who are published frequently have something more interesting to say.

"Their views are not particularly profound, unusual or humorous," he says.

I think there is also another explanation. Editors prefer articles that will cause them the least trouble in editing, and that creates opportunities to hog the readers’ forum by prolific writers who write well. But is that fair?

Send your complaints to [email protected]. Call 3288000, mobile 0721989264