Please cut journalists some slack, they are doing their best

From left: Cedric Isaac Shivonje, his father Isaac Betti, and his uncle Timothy Burundi at Kamiti Prison on November 20, 2019. PHOTO | JOAN PERERUAN | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • There are those among us who are pushing a toxic narrative against our media with the intention of undermining the Press, maligning journalists and pouring cold water on their efforts.
  • Let’s give credit where it is due. Our journalists outdid themselves this week and they deserve a pat on the back. You don’t have to go beyond our borders to find world class journalists.

  • They are here with us. They write our stories, they write the headlines and believe it or not, many love this country to death.

It was the story on everyone’s lips: The Kenya Airways stowaway had finally been identified, his family tracked down and his girlfriend located.

It was supposed to be the example of journalistic excellence at its peak, a validation of the resilience of investigative journalism.

Sky News, a British Broadcaster largely ignored by Kenyans prior to this story, was now the glowing example of western media outdoing its Kenyan counterparts and teaching local media how to do their job — on their own soil. Or so we all thought.

BIG QUESTION

Turns out the man in the photo used by Sky News was not Paul Manyasi, an alleged employee of Colnet Kenya, a cleaning company.

Instead, a Mr Cedric Shivonje Isaac, an unassuming young Kenyan whiling his time away in remand at Nairobi Medium Prison, Industrial Area, popped up. Mr Shivonje claims that those pictures were pulled off his Facebook account.

We now know the truth — well, part of it.

Shivonje’s father admitted to misleading the Sky News journalist who was currently basking in the praises of Kenya’s faux elites on Twitter, who nearly accorded the foreign journalist shujaa status. We know this because our Kenyan journalists took up the story, followed it up and delivered it in a most brilliant manner.

But even as we continue to ask the big question — who was that man who fell out of the London skies? — Kenyans are uncharacteristically mum on the journalistic feat that has been achieved by our local journalists. The Sky News story, by the way, has been pulled down from their website and the broadcaster has since apologised for publishing “misleading information”.

KNOW-IT-ALLS

See, I could make today’s column about the repeated misreporting by foreign media of Kenyan issues and the Kenyan people, but that is too cliché and a waste of my time. Instead, I choose to celebrate our Kenyan journalists for a job well done.

When the story first broke last week, Kenyans, especially the know-it-alls on Twitter, rained a war of words on Kenyan media, vilifying them for failing to follow up the story of the year. They praised foreign media for going out of their way to bring us the story because our ‘githeri media’ was too busy ‘publishing fake stories’ and focusing on the wrong issues, allegedly.

Now that our journalists have torn apart the fake story, there is not a single soul that even cares to appreciate what these brave journalists have done. And therein lies our problem as Kenyans. We never see or even appreciate our local media for the hard work they do. We are very quick to throw barbs at the media and we have continually used Kenyan media as a punching bag on which we release our frustrations with our government and institutions.

TOXIC NARRATIVE

It is difficult enough to be a journalist today — anywhere in the world — especially in such a time as this, characterised by digital disruption and nosediving revenues. There has never been a time that Kenyan journalists were as afraid for their livelihoods as they are today, and the hundreds of layoffs that have been announced recently are proof of this. Kenyan journalists are increasingly feeling the pressure of these tough economic times and I bet my entire year’s salary most journalists you see today have remained in the trade because of their love for journalism and a good number of them, because of their personal and professional conviction to pursue and publish the truth at all costs.

Many of you take your journalists for granted; should you ever find yourself living in a country without a free press (not that we are faring that well), you will begin to appreciate the journalists who risk their lives and those of their families to bring you the truth.

Admittedly, our journalists have made their mistakes. But so what? Journalists are human too, and guess what, even the mighty New York Times occasionally publishes embarrassing mistakes. However, there are those among us, the snakes in the grass, who are pushing a toxic narrative against our media with the intention of undermining the Press, maligning journalists and pouring cold water on their efforts.

BEYOND BORDERS

Let’s give credit where it is due. Our journalists outdid themselves this week and they deserve a pat on the back. You don’t have to go beyond our borders to find world class journalists. They are here with us. They write our stories, they write the headlines and believe it or not, many love this country to death.

Aluta continua, fellow scribes!

Ms Chege is the director of the Innovation Centre at Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications; [email protected]