Media should handle terror reports with some discretion

What you need to know:

  • All of us of good will were filled with anger and frustration. Some bodies of the fallen students of Garissa University College were still lying in our mortuary.
  • We must report on events but perhaps the manner in which we report might give encouragement and satisfaction to the enemy.
  • There used to be a “theory” in news reporting that went something like this: If a dog bites a man; that is not news. If on the other hand a man bites a dog, oh! That is real news.

Many of us have a burning interest in our country. We consistently seek to know how things are evolving. Isn’t that the reason why we regularly make an effort to get to know what is happening around us?

We read the papers, watch television news, listen to the radio and so on. I am convinced the manner in which our media channels report on what happens can make or break us.

Early this week, we here at the University of Nairobi were dealing with an awkward situation when some of our students were injured after a scare coming from a faulty electric cable. During the first two days of the week the media were awash with this news.

All of us of good will were filled with anger and frustration. Some bodies of the fallen students of Garissa University College were still lying in our mortuary. Many of us had been involved in one way or another with the management of that situation at Chiromo. It was not lost on us that the reason for the scare at Kikuyu campus was due to what had happened in Garissa.

TERRORISTS' REACTION

So I asked myself in the middle of my frustration. What could have been the reaction of the perpetrators of the said terror to this news about people getting injured — one died — due to fear? I imagine they must have celebrated and felt that they were indeed succeeding for their intention is really to cause fear everywhere.

We must report on events but perhaps the manner in which we report might give encouragement and satisfaction to the enemy.

I am often not sure where to draw the line between reporting facts as they are and being discreet for the sake of the dignity of our fellow human beings.

What I have in mind here is the pictorial reports we often see after accidents have happened. In the case of our disaster at Kikuyu, it was also about the message we are passing to the enemy.

That he has succeeded. I am sure many editors are as wounded as the rest of us by the way things of insecurity and terror are going.

There used to be a “theory” in news reporting that went something like this: If a dog bites a man; that is not news. If on the other hand a man bites a dog, oh! That is real news.

This might explain some of the extreme sensationalism we see in sections of the media when they report on some matters. I am of the opinion however that there are certain other matters that touch on the very core of humanity that must be dealt with discreetly.

Fr Wamugunda is Dean of Students, University of Nairobi; [email protected]