Media industry must jealously guard the gains it has made so far

Journalists in Kisii County mark the World Press Freedom Day. [Edwin Nyarangi, Standard] 

Today was World Press Freedom Day, when men and women who are in love with their pens, notebooks, cameras and microphones reflect on their work and environment and what they go through to feed society with information. Kenya has positioned itself at the top spot in Africa with well-developed media, but its ranking on World Press Freedom Index has not been impressive at all.

Perhaps it is high time we started asking ourselves some tough questions. Why are some countries in the region with worse cases of violation of the rights of journalists ranked ahead of us? While we celebrate some positive developments, we cannot turn a blind eye to some challenges that can be nipped in the bud to protect the gains we have made

All duty bearers in the industry should be worried and pull out all the stops to safeguard the gains Kenyan media have registered so far.

Over the past two years, a trend is developing where the hand of the government is being seen in media regulation in total violation of the Constitution that guarantees freedom of the media. While government support for the media is welcome, it must keep off the editorial space even as it transitions to self-regulation.

There has been some overreach by some State agencies keen on tightening their grip on the media to serve some interests which are not for the common good of the society. This is dangerous for our growing democracy that requires media to not only inform but also play a critical watchdog role given that the country has not had an opposition following the March 2018 handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The Covid-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for the Kenyan media. It revealed the media are built on quicksand that can sink anytime if minimum force is applied. The redundancies and salary cuts that journalists and media workers were subjected to demonstrated that the industry is not stable, and needs to reflect on how to shield itself from such eventualities in future.

It was against this backdrop that the industry stakeholders held a meeting last year and released a six-point agenda dubbed Maanzoni Declaration to guide the industry while seeking solutions to the challenges it is facing.

The key highlights of the Maanzoni Declaration are media sustainability, media support, policy and legal reforms, gender inclusion, and the safety of and welfare of journalists. If all duty bearers can occupy themselves with these issues, the industry will certainly repulse the challenges that lie ahead. If we can create time and resources to focus on these issues, the annual ritual of retrenching journalists will stop.

We head to elections on August 9 with a media that is determined to turn the tide against challenges that have bedevilled it in the past two elections, where performance was found to be below par by post-election analysis and reports.

All stakeholders have a duty to build confidence among the consumers of media products by working jointly on projects that require huge resources to deliver news to readers, listeners and viewers instead of competing. All consumers of news want is credible and verifiable information.

If the media does not get it right, the situation will be worse in future due to technological changes that have made the delivery of news more convenient.