WE REFUSE
TO BE SILENCED
For many
years, we have been privileged to contribute regularly to various publications
of the Nation Media Group (NMG) as columnists. But sadly, and with regret, we now
announce the immediate withdrawal of our columns from these publications.
We are
deeply grateful to readers here in Kenya, throughout the region and around the
world, who have granted us audience and engaged with our contributions to
public debate on politics, policy, justice and human rights.
We are
aware that the singular privilege to contribute comes with the tacit compact to
promote and protect intellectual freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of
information, which anchor freedom of the media.
Freedom of
the media is a public good, and private individuals and corporations profit
from it on the understanding that their gain securestheir independence. Media
freedom acquires significance of democracy where public institutions are weak
and under threat, the Executive has little check, as has been observed in Kenya
recently.
Two years
ago, a number of us wrote to the NMG’s board of directors in an act of good
faith to express our concerns about what we saw as a systematic process to
constrain independent voices within the company, contrary to its stated
editorial policy to promote diversity and freedom of the media. We feared the
Nation Media Group’s legitimacy as a credible source of truth was being
undermined by the management’s failure, or refusal to safeguard the operational
independence of professionals in its employ.
Notably, we
cited the dismissal of Denis Galava as Managing Editor for Special Projects and
Investigations over the publication of an editorial critical of the presidency
– especially since he had been threatened of such action from outside Nation
Media Group. Within weeks of that decision, NMG’s management also allowed the
contract of Africa’s foremost cartoonist Geoffrey Mwampembwa, ‘Gado’, to laps
because of the discomfort his contributions were causing the Executive. Other,
subsequent departures of senior editorial staff did little to assuage the moral
dilemma we felt at our continued association with the NMG whose respect for
human rights and freedom of expression was then in question. We asked the
company to change course.
Our view
then, as it remains now, was that these actions damaged the NMG’s claim to be a
champion of editorial independence and media freedom.
The Board’s
response, when it came two months later, promised unspecified action, which
never materialized.
Last month,
the NMG released from its services Linus Kaikai, who, as chair of the Kenya
Editors Guild, had spoken out against collusion between the Executive and some
media managers to censor reporting on the mock swearing-in of opposition leader
Raila Odinga. Subsequently, the editors of the Saturday Nation informed one of
the most-read and discussed columnists that his contract would not be renewed,
and only after he formally inquired about his status.
Long before
the communication, it was reported that discontinuing of economist David Ndii’s
column was one of the Executive’s conditions for the reinstatement of NMG’s
broadcast frequencies, which had been unlawfully switched off air.
A worrying
pattern has emerged where it appears the Executive is able to influence who
works for or contributes to the NMG. The Executive has had numerous
opportunities and resources to tell its side of whatever story is being
publicly discussed – and it has done so both through its spokespeople and
through pro-government columnists, including in the Nation’s publications.
The
Executive and NMG’s actions suggest state capture of the media. Censoring
individual columnists signals official intolerance for dissenting views, and
suggests Executive willingness to go any length – even co-opting editors – to
achieve its aims. It is unacceptable that they should also be deciding who can
have a voice in publicly accessed spaces. A media organization that tacitly
supports such a position alienates itself from the public.
Two years
ago, we opted that the judgement and leadership of some of the NMG’s editorial
board and its senior management was questionable and engendered public
suspicion about its political independence. These latest actions have, in our
collective view, destroyed public trust the NMG’s publications enjoyed, making
our continued association with NMG untenable.
We refuse
to continue to clothe the loss of editorial independence and media freedom at
the NMG with respectability.
Thankfully,
public opinion is no longer in the sole grip of those who buy ink by the
barrel. We are encouraged by the emergence of more egalitarian models for accessing
and sharing information, and will not be powerless witnesses to the silencing
of even one voice, however disagreeable those in power might find it.
It is with
regret that we hereby collectively resign as independent columnists from the
NMG. We assure our readership that we intend to continue to be heard and to
engage with readers through making use of such models for free thought and the
free exchange of ideas.
1. George Kegoro – Executive Director,
Kenya Human Rights Commission and Sunday Nation Columnist since 2011.
2. Muthoni Wanyeki – Africa Director,
Open Society Foundation and Saturday Nation / East African columnist since
2001.
3. Fr Gabriel Dolan – Catholic
missionary priest and Saturday Columnist since 2008.
4. Rasnah Warah – Author and Daily
Nation columnist since 2006.
5. Maina Kiai – Co-Director,
InformAction and columnist Sunday Nation 1997 – 1999; 2001 – 2003; Saturday
Nation since 2011.
6. Gabrielle Lynch – Professor of
Comparative Politics, University of Warwick and Saturday Nation columnist since
April 2014.
7. Nic Cheeseman – Professor of
Democracy, University of Birmingham and Sunday Nation columnist since 2004.
8. Kwamchetsi Makhoha – Programme
Advisor, Journalists for Justice and Daily Nation / Saturday Nation columnist
1999 – 2003; 2006 – 2018.
