We will not relent in our quest to expose evil, hold power to account

So my big boss, together with many other big bosses, and after a considerable period of prayer and reflection, have promoted me.

I am not naturally a very ambitious guy, not in the corporate sense anyway, so I have watched the proceedings with a somewhat out-of-body kind of bemusement.

Not that I don’t feel the crushing weight of the responsibility of taking over a venerated organ in a time of transition.

The future of media companies is in the newsroom. All those bright young people, with their hopes, dreams and expensive degrees in journalism, their future lies squarely on our conscience.

The burden of today’s editors is that not only are they worried about the fate of the values and quality of the journalism they practise, they must wage a conflict to create space for it in the busy lives of those they seek to serve, but also, in many places, in the midst of growing intolerance.

STANDARDS

After 22 years in journalism, the bulk of them at Nation, I am what is referred to as a “media insider” or “veteran editor” in the blogs.

From where I sit, I am looking at the future of the media not exactly with apprehension but huge frustration: We still have to fight for space in Kenya, our good intentions are misunderstood and there are some really nasty folks out there.

Yet, good editors know the value of restraint. Good editors are absolutely shy of using authority and are never at the service of personal aggrandisement or benefit.

The good editor is not one who goes off half-cooked but one who waits, at the risk of being scooped, until all the evidence is in and every comment has been sought.

I am the safest man in Kenya to defame. I don’t sue and I don’t complain.

CORRUPTION

I fume in silence because, at the end of the day, the right of that blogger to express himself is more important than my right to a good reputation.

That is why when some fool falsely accused me of supplying meat to the government, or when some other self-important guy tweeted that I was getting instructions from the government to expose corruption in the government, I couldn’t even deny it. They were wrong, but it’s OK.

Our job as Nation editors and journalists is to represent the rights and interests of the majority of people in this country, and has been since 1958.

We may be restrained and balanced in our denunciations of the violations of the rights of Kenyans but we never have, and never will, stand for dictatorship and abuse of the rights of Kenyans.

And that is why the Nation will never stand for, defend or make excuses for corruption.

We might be the targets of commercial blockades and State sabotage but, so long as we are in the building, the Nation will expose and fight corruption — even if it is the only institution doing so.

TRUTH

Because that’s what we are; not perfect, not without failings and infirmities, but always clear. That might sound a bit stuck up, but it needs to be said.

Two more things. The world is drowning in content. Some of it meaningful, most of it not.

The age-old search for the truth, for the plain facts, is the burden of journalism more so today than at any time in the history of humanity.

US President Donald Trump has told 7,600 lies in two years, an average of 15 a day.

And that’s just one politician, carefully fact-checked by good journalists at the Washington Post.

Never has the US needed the Washington Post, the New York Times and its other media. The journalist’s job is not done because there is Twitter.

WATCHDOG

I once met a government official who thought that his job is to “manage” the media.

The constructive tension between the media and those in power, the journalist’s natural mistrust for the authorities, is a key facet of democracy.

Those folks working so hard to create a lapdog media in Kenya, some of them previously good journalists who have eloped to the dark side, have allowed themselves to be blinded by their friendship with the regime and the beneficial relations they have constructed.

A pliant media cannot hold power to account and a press that can’t hold government to account is quite pointless.

Finally, journalism ceases to be journalism without fairness. And this is where we fail most often because we encounter something that is so wrong that we forget that even wrong have a right to equal treatment.

FAIRNESS

Jill Abramson, former editor of the New York Times, has just criticised her former paper, respected the world over for its quality, for being “anti-Trump”.

Unfortunately, since journalists are not evangelists, even evil must be fought and condemned fairly.

So, now I am sitting here contemplating the future with excitement and hope, but also with a million questions in my mind.

I have written a column weekly more less since college. How will readers tell the difference between my opinion and that of the organisation I work for?

If I can’t express myself honesty, is there any point to write at all?

And will all these clever ideas we have for the future work or are they just theories from bureaucrats and desk drivers?

Will we let down the hundreds of young people who have put their dreams in our hands? One thing is for sure: We will give it our best, which is considerable.

Happy New Year!

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