By Peter Makori
Weekly Citizen
Kisii, Kenya
Hosted by The Kansas City Star

I came to The Kansas City Star in April 2006 where I was to start my practical training or work experience in print journalism in the United States. At first the situation looked uncertain for me. Everything was intimidating, largely because of being new in a foreign country.

JOURNALISTIC PRACTISES, VALUES AND STANDARDS:

There are many things which I learnt as a result of being attached to The Kansas City Star. One of these is the commitment to professional integrity by the journalists here. I came to appreciate this fact with time after my one-week journalism class with Rafael Lorente during the Orientation Seminar in Washington, DC.

When we visited the Washington, DC bureau of the Chicago Tribune, I learnt one fundamental principal among US journalists who cover the President and White House affairs—pay your bills and meet all your expenses. This to me was a very loud message which we take for granted, especially those of us who work from the field in Africa. More often than not, we hike lifts in the cars of politicians and yet we are expected to report about them and their activities independently.

I have also learnt the value of paying better salaries to reporters. It promotes independence of the reporter in many aspects. The reporter cannot look for his source of news (politician) to carry him/her in his/her car to the function which the reporter is going to cover. By making reasonable remuneration, the newspaper is helping the principles of fair-play and promoting the culture of independence.

Another significant lesson that I learnt while at The Kansans City Star is the open-handed approach to discussion of stories and other events related to public affairs and policies. Another new discovery is the invitation to the newsrooms of members of the public, leaders of all backgrounds and origins to give their views especially to the editorial and opinion page writers. This concept promotes harmony and understanding among the community and the newspaper.

While in most cases in Kenya, there is infiltration of newsrooms by different political forces, there have been extremely high standards of independence of thought and judgment among the editors and reporters here.

I speak about this point because after the raid by commandos and mercenaries at the Standard newspaper and Kenya Television Network (KTN) in Nairobi in mid-March this year, a Kenyan cabinet minister declared that the government retain informers in all mainstream publications in the country to spy on what goes on there on a daily basis. John Michuki, the colonial home guard and President Kibaki’s linkman told the press, “We have our informers in all the newsrooms and you can’t know them. They are amongst you and they spy information for us.”

On analyzing this confession, I realized that the newsrooms in our countries are havens for spies. Arising from this fact, I shall push for strict recruitment screening procedures and dig the background of a reporter before giving him/her a job. This is one issue any newsroom can adopt.

I also have been a beneficiary on two other areas. One, I have become a better writer especially writing opinions and editorials which I never used to do. Second, I am now much more polished to confidently run an interview as I have been shown how to make sure I ‘own’ and ‘control’ its proceedings. The Poynter training helped shape up certain issues related with carrying out and sustaining an interview.

Editing and proof reading: When you look at various articles published in our local dailies in Kenya, there are gross mistakes of poor editing and proofreading. In my newsroom at The Star, serious and strict attention is given to proof reading. Mistakes are not tolerated.

CONVINCE EDITORS TO CHANGE:

Issues of poor editing and proofreading portray the image of the newspaper. It portrays the credibility of the editorial team. Therefore, to seek strict adherence to this will not be a big issue at home since I shall negotiate and convince the management to strengthen the corrections section of the paper.

Second, to change the attitude of writers seeking rides with politicians and businessmen, a new policy will be necessary where standards will have to be set out for all reporters to meet. To achieve this goal, there will be a need to review salaries and emoluments for the field reporters so that if it is an assignment, then the reporter should file their claims for reimbursements for the taxis and meals.

A strong case should be put forward to convince the management to consider making these changes and I shall argue that a new culture of media accountability and strict transparency is necessary in such a fragile transitional democracy like in Kenya. You cannot justify criticizing corruption when you appear to be part and parcel of the vice. By seeking a politician’s lift, chasing financial handouts, you are compromising your profession and to a degree showing how vulnerable and susceptible you are to be corrupted. This will be my argument.

With my professional peers, I will propose a kind of funding to be set aside for workshops where I will share one by one the sessions we went through. I shall use the example of the White House correspondents who, despite being close to the seat of political power, never take anything for granted. I shall give reasons to back my observations and recommendations for change.

These reasons include: one, once you show how vulnerable you are before the politicians, they will always take advantage of, and misuse you for, their selfish interests. Second, I will tell them to guard against their credibility and professional integrity. I will tell them to pay their bills and turn down any unnecessary invitations for drinks from political operatives. If they have to take those drinks, then, it should never be a habit and one must reciprocate by being the one to offer the drink next time. This way, the politicians and administrators will respect you.