Why accurate reporting by media is critical

A man reads a newspaper in Kitale. PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • A media person who does his or her thing as if we are still in the 1980s or 1990s is certainly not helping the younger generation.

  • Media freedom must mean that even the media have a responsibility.

Many things happened last week including all the noise and disagreements about who was nominated for what position in which party and all that. In the middle of all that confusion it may have escaped the attention of most Kenyans that in that week there was a special day set aside to think about, celebrate and insist on media freedom. I would not at this point blame those Kenyans who never paid attention to that little detail. The truth however is that most of us both old and young have been carried away by entertainment – whichever way it comes - and all that goes with it.

The young people we teach today have no idea where we have come from and of course no one can blame them. They would never know that there were times when we used to speak in whispers. They would never know that there were times when certain information about the president or about the government would never be reported in the newspapers or even on radio or television. Nor would they ever know that there was a time when we had only one television or radio station. It is not just about the younger ones but some of us mature Kenyans behave as if we do not remember those days.

A CHANCE

Let us all agree on one thing. That the opening up of the distribution of information was at some point made possible in Kenya is what has given a chance to our democracy to start taking shape. Well of course we seem to have a long way to go with regard to how internal party democracy is managed but given the way things are going we just might get there. What will help us in that journey will be the consistent and forthright information that citizens are fed with. The media have a job there.

Even as we talk about media freedom, which is critical and at the very base of any democratic thinking, there is also a little issue we must consider. If those media operators are part of our national existence, which is now the case, then of course one would expect that any one of them would think like a Kenyan. There are many things we see and read and one wonders whether they are coming from real Kenyans. We all know Kenya.

Each one of us has a responsibility. A media person who does his or her thing as if we are still in the 1980s or 1990s is certainly not helping the younger generation. Media freedom must mean that even the media have a responsibility.

Fr Dominic Wamugunda is dean of students, University of Nairobi.