Africans explore public's role in a free press

By JACOB LIVINGSTON
J-School Web Reporter

photo by Ryan Brennecke

John Mwendwa,left, and Martin Wanjala Ocholi, journalists from Kenya, speak to students about journalism in their country.

Two Kenyan journalists discovered the beneficial relationship between a democratic government and the voice of its citizens in a recent visit to the University of Montana’s journalism program.

“We are looking at how to involve communities and bring them back to the center of the debate with the media,” said John Mwendwa Gitari, the associate editor of the Kenyan Television Network in the country’s capital, Nairobi.“It’s basically how to make democracy work better.”

Gitari and Martin Ocholi, the founder and president of a Nairobi-based organization that trains journalists and researches the link between journalism and democracy, traveled to UM as part of their ongoing, cross-country research at the Kettering Foundation, an Ohio-based organization that examines the role of citizens and the media in a democratic government.

The two journalists have been in the United States for four months on fellowships from the foundation. Their fellowships end in December, when the Kenyan journalists return home to assimilate some of the lessons and techniques they learned while in the United States into Kenya’s media structure.

Denise Dowling, an assistant professor in UM’s radio-television department, was approached by Ocholi and Gitari at an international journalists conference last summer. The visiting journalists had heard of the radio-television department’s public programs and asked if they could come to Missoula to see one first hand.

“We were thrilled that they were even interested in wanting to come and look at our program,” Dowling said. “And it was incredible when these two Kenyan journalists told the students and I that they found a spark they can take back and try to use in their emerging Kenyan democracy.”

While at UM, Gitari and Ocholi participated in classroom discussions and observed KBGA’s Footbridge Forum, a student-operated radio program that involves the community in discussing issues that affect UM students and the public.

This is an important interaction that Kenyan citizens don’t benefit from, Ocholi said. For example, Kenyan politicians are able to use the media for their benefit because public feedback has been neglected in reporting on issues, he said.

“Most of the media, 90 percent, is located in Nairobi,” Ocholi said. “That leaves little information being generated by the local media. That is not adequate.”

In the past 15 years, major constitutional changes have been introduced in Kenya, such as the freedom of association.

However, there is still a long way to go in establishing an open environment that engages public discussion in political processes, the journalists said.

“Most of Americans may have never known that lack of protection,” Ocholi said. “I am at the realization that there is so much work yet to do in Kenya.”

While a constitutional draft has been introduced to the people of Kenya that is similar to the rights granted to citizens in the U.S. Constitution, the problem of gaining the public’s trust also remains, Ocholi said.“Some of the questions that journalists face remain, such as how to enhance the trust of media,” he said. “We have the same issues of how to build that trust.”

Their research has shown the visiting journalists that, while there are some similarities between Kenyan and American media, including public opinion is a critical component that needs to be built upon in Kenya.

“We have left out the critical mass of the public,” Ocholi said. “I think, probably, that’s where the answer lies.”

Back to J-School main page