Media shouldn’t buckle at persecution

Media houses may be back in business but the impact of their recent state shutdown is as yet unknown.

Time will tell, yet questions abound: Will Media Owners and Editors feel more intimidated or more emboldened in their work?

Will senior staff be victimised, editors compromised and columnists retired?

Will recent events be a watershed in the development of press freedom or will it be another nail in the coffin of free speech and the right to broadcast?

While the media fraternity ponder their next move, they might consider spending an afternoon watching the recently released Steven Spielberg movie, The Post, starring Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks.

The movie is set in Washington in 1971 but is as relevant to Kenya and US today as then as the issues of truth, press freedom, fake news and government interference have not changed.

NEWSPAPERS
The plot centres on an internal White House memo that became known as the Pentagon Papers and dealt with the American War in Vietnam.

The leaked memo showed how four successive White House administrations had lied to the American public and continued to conscript their children to fight in a war that the Pentagon knew they couldn’t win.

The New York Times first published excerpts from the memo but they were slapped with a court injunction preventing further publication.

The editor and owner of the Washington Post then had to decide whether they should risk publishing and face jail as well as loss of income from their investors.

In the end they realised that the only way to defend the right to publish was in fact to publish.

COURT ORDERS
The moral choices facing The Post are dealt with clearly and concisely.

In the end, the editor states: "We can’t have an administration dictating to us our coverage just because they don’t like what we print about them in our newspaper."

Put another way, if the media can’t hold the government accountable then who will?

Those same questions most probably are disturbing the consciences of the boards of NTV, Citizen and KTN at this time.

Since the state ignored court orders to restore broadcasting until they alone decided it is quite likely that threats of further sanctions and interference remain.

WATCHDOG ROLE

The risk of losing government income from advertising will also be at play in those internal discussions.

Kenya's media houses are extremely wealthy and influential organisations.

Yet, they are now confronted with the moral choice as to whether their primary role is to serve the governed or the government.

In recent years the quality of investigative journalism has considerably reduced.

Media houses have become snug, prosperous, inward looking institutions often more concerned with being viewed as trend setters than being a voice for Wanjiku and a promoter of the common good.

SOCIAL MEDIA
If they choose to play it safe and avoid controversy they will alienate themselves from the public and their customer base.  

Thereafter, they will be replaced by social media and newer players in the market.

Put another way, they either publish with boldness or suffer a slow death caused by public indifference.

There is no third way for the fourth estate if committed to serving the public interest.

Father Dolan is a Catholic priest based in Mombasa. [email protected] @GabrielDolan1