Best journalistic practice is to allow readers to have their say

Matatu operators in Nyeri Town on August 14, 2017 read a copy of the Daily Nation. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The editor is responsible for what appears in his newspaper and has a right to edit everything, including letters to the editor.
  • The editor should always allow readers to express their viewpoints, even when they’re contrary to his.

Ernest Saina, by no means the only writer of letters to the editor who has complained over the years, says he has been disappointed in the way his letters have been mutilated to the extent of missing the point being made.

“Granted, the editor has the right to publish and edit such letters. But in the two letters I wrote, the editor, in my view, was not alive to the subjects at hand,” he wrote.

“The first letter was about a report that confiscated charcoal in Narok was burned by government officials.

I pointed out that this was a double destruction of an energy source and that the charcoal should have been given to an institution such as a school.

“This point did not come out in the edited letter.”

EDITING
Similarly, his second letter, which was about CDF officials who were found guilty of misappropriation, recommended that a regular column should be introduced to keep track of the fight on corruption.

But that was omitted in the edited letter. He asked me to take up the issue of the “mutilation”.

The editor is responsible for what appears in his newspaper and has a right to edit everything, including letters to the editor.

However, he should not edit your letter to conform to his own views or style of writing.

COMPLAINT

He should not edit it so heavily that it distorts your message or looks like it’s not your work.

If he edits your letter in such a way that it barely resembles the one you submitted, he owes you an explanation.

It’s possible, though, that he may have an explanation that might satisfy you. It’s possible he may have improved your writing.

But if he distorts your views or makes you look like a dimwit, you have a right to complain.

PUBLISH
Merely shortening your letter to fit the space available, however, is no cause to complain.

“Yes, it’s true your letters were shortened or mutilated as you say,” I told Mr Saina.

“In fact, your letters were published under the label ‘Short Takes’ (The phrase comes from the film industry, where it means a very short bit of recording).

This tells anyone reading the letter that only a bit of the letter is published.

It means your letter could not be published in full but there’s this bit that was published because the editor thought it was the most important or interesting part of the letter.

READERS
One can view ‘Short Takes’ as the journalistic equivalent of “nusu mkate” in local political parlance.

The reader knows the letter has been shortened out of necessity. It is not mutilation as such.

It would be mutilation if the letter was purported to be published in full yet it has been heavily edited (shortened).

This was not the case with Mr Saina’s letters, which I have viewed in their original form.

Still, Mr Saina makes a good point: The editor should always allow readers to express their viewpoints, even when they’re contrary to his.

* * *
I‘m always looking for journalistic gems of ethical behaviour.

My takeaway from Kamau Ngotho’s story, Holy water and other ways scribes bend rules to get those stories (Sunday Nation, April 29) is the following paragraph:

"One of my early assignments as a journalist was to report on a function to commission a communal project at some place near Nyahururu town.

"I was with Mr Muiru Ngugi, then a trainee reporter with the Ministry of Information. Today he is a senior lecturer of journalism at the University of Nairobi.

"After the function, we were all invited for a lunch prepared by the villagers, grateful at the completion of the project.

"I remember Mr Ngugi pulling me aside and whispering: ‘You know, we can’t take their lunch. That would compromise our ethics as journalists."'

Although Mr Ngotho describes Prof Ngugi’s stand as “professional virginity”, it’s true there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Even if something looks like it’s free, there’s always a cost — indirect or hidden.  

Send your complaints to [email protected]. Call or text 0721 989 264