Post by Onyango Oloo on Sept 28, 2005 22:17:45 GMT 3
Media Should Help Curb Ethnic Animosity
By Raila Odinga- originally published in the Daily Nation, Kenya Times & East African Standard
The scores of fundamental freedoms that humanity now enjoys were won over the ages through struggles and profound sacrifices. Of these freedoms, none to me is as precious as the freedom of the press, since without it all the other freedoms can be rapidly undermined. A free press is also the surest defence for democracy and the strongest antidote to tyranny and dictatorship. That is why the media is always one of the first targets of those who wish to rule against the wishes of the people.
For the last 30 years I have fought to open up political space for all points of view in our country, and for that I have been persecuted ruthlessly, including three painful and lengthy prison incarcerations for standing up for my principles. And in my struggles, I have always held that the free press is indispensable to the strengthening of democracy and all other freedoms in Kenya. I am therefore astonished to see that a Standard editorial on Monday claimed that I issued a ban prohibiting the Nation and the Citizen groups from covering the rallies of the Orange No campaign. This is categorically untrue; I have neither issued such ban nor ever contemplated doing so. I am very unhappy with the biased coverage of our campaign by the Nation and Royal Media groups, but it is against my principles to prevent the media from covering events or to issue threats against journalists. Indeed, the Nation reported on Monday that I had NOT banned the media from covering our Kisumu rally. It pointed out in its report that it was an influential Kisumu politician who had done so, and went on to point out correctly that I had told the Nation that the Kisumu politician in question was not speaking on behalf of our campaign but was expressing only his personal sentiments. Yesterday, a group of my colleagues met with the senior editorial team of the Nation at their request in an effort to ensure more objective news coverage of our campaign and to clear any misunderstandings. I am pleased to say that it was a very candid and extremely useful meeting which I am confident will ensure that we all work as the partners we are in building greater understanding about the content of the proposed Constitution.
Despite this excellent session, I do want to answer some of the unfair and damaging charges against us that have been carried in the media. For example, it has been alleged that journalists of the Nation Media Group had been “paraded” at our Kakamega rally in front of the crowd. This is not true. Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta had asked the journalists, not just those of the Nation, to come up to the platform so that they could have better vantage point from which to obtain pictures which captured the size of the huge crowd which had come to our rally. As Hon Kenyatta and others have said, we have been very disappointed that the Nation has frequently refrained from carrying pictures of the huge crowdsour rallies attract, focusing instead on much smaller crowds at the rallies organised by the YES Banana campaign.
The Nation on Sunday also reported prominently that I had said that President Kibaki should step down if the Yes campaign lost the referendum. This is absolutely false, and reporting so was inflammatory.
Since Kenyans will be influenced in their vote on the referendum primarily by what they read, hear and see in the media, unbalanced coverage of major events and issues can completely distort the outcome of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity all of us have to decide, in a free and fair manner, on the specific contents of the Constitution which they believe will help them to a peaceful and prosperous, democratic future. In my view, this is a fraudulent Constitution which removes devolution, and among other things, will significantly strengthen the executive power and weaken Kenyans’ long struggle for being sovereign. Kenyans’ rejection of the Wako Draft will not lead to a vacuum but will in fact allow us to return to the Bomas Draft, which was an internationally unique process. No Constitution-making processhas been as comprehensively participatory of every segment of society as the one at Bomas. It cannot be thrown out in favour of a document put together by a small group.
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I believe there is nothing wrong whatsoever in the Orange No campaign’s pointing out when unbalanced news coverage occurs. It is our right to do so under the very principles that have enshrined the rights of the media in our Constitution. Indeed, I feel proud that the President and the cabinet of which I am a part have overall been able to substantially enhance press freedoms in Kenya.
The press must enjoy freedoms that should be enshrined in law, but I also want to assert that the press needs to exercise such freedoms in a responsible, impartial and fair manner. “Responsible, impartial and fair” are not code words designed to limit press freedom but rather to enhance it by building greater trust and credibility in the media.
I have absolutely no problem with the press criticising me or my team; that is their intrinsic right, as long as they offer whoever is being criticised the right of reply. Let me also make clear that I am not asking the media to provide the kind of coverage that supports our positions, only that it make a good-faith effort to be balanced. And when it is, I am happy to applaud. For example, I thought the Nation’s coverage and editorial last Friday were excellent, even though I do not believe we should postpone the date of the referendum. There are similar excellent examples I could cite from the Standard. But what concerns us infinitely more than unbalanced coverage is that sections of the media are stirring ethnic animosities among Kenya’s communities in an ethnic-based approach to promoting the Yes vote.
For example, I strongly believe that the Citizen Group’s coverage of the campaigns is dividing Kenyans along ethnic lines. If this continues, our country’s long-cherished harmony could be tom apart. We MUST be vigilant in preventing divisive and demonising media content, which in various times in our neighbouring countries of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda has been used to such horrific and genocidal ends.
The vast majority of the world’s people, and of course Kenyans, are proud of their ethnic and cultural heritages, and would in no way wish to denigrate the heritage or the rights of others. Invariably, it is leaders hungering for absolute political power who seek to mobilise their constituencies through demeaning other communities and portraying them as enemies of the people. It is only a genuinely free, principled and courageous media which can expose such tactics before they endanger a nation’s future.
The author is Roads Minister and Langata MP