CORRUPTION AND JOURNALISTS:

Journalists should Resist Bribes to maintain their Trust Among the Masses

By Maritim Evans

The press has been an epitome of democracy, a voice of the voiceless and a front-runner in fight against corruption in many countries, but this is not the case in Kenya.

The people who were supposed to guard Wananchi against corrupt individuals are the one receiving bribes to kill corruption allegation stories!

Swaleh Mdoe: He is among ten journalists who were suspended for ten days pending investigation on corruption allegations. PHOTO COURTESY

Where is the role of the press in this case? The people who have been baptized and given a honorable name, the members of the fourth estate, are busy receiving bribes to kill negative stories!

It was so unfortunate for about ten journalists including top news anchors and news editor to be suspended for ten days pending investigations on corruption allegations.

The image they portrayed is atrocious and the media fraternity in the country has condemned the allegations, but who knows what is happening in the newsrooms? How many negative stories that have been spiked that Wananchi do not know?

People trust journalists more than anyone else. You hear people saying I heard such and such over the radio, I read that in the newspaper or I watched that on television. This portrays the level of trust common citizens have on the media houses. They take everything they heard from the media as the gospel truth.

Journalists are among the people who are highly paid across the world. This was encouraged to reduce the issue of corruption, but despite the high pay they receive, they have not been able to do their work independently.

They assume their code of ethics and do their work as if there is no professional rule of ethics they are supposed to follow. They do their journalistic works just like business that is mainly aimed at making profits.

It goes without any say that journalists working for small media houses attract little attention from bigwigs. This means that if a certain titan wants to kill a story, the best way to do is to bribe journalists working for big media houses, so that if a story is surfaced anyway in small media houses it will not have any impact at all since naturally small media houses command small number of audience.

Journalism should be made a profession. This means that it should meet all the requirements that a profession should have including taking an oath. This may be used in a court of law to prosecute errant journalists.

XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS IN SOUTH AFRICA:

ATTACK ON FOREIGNERS IN SOUTH AFRICA

By Maritim Kipngetich

The current xenophobic attack in South Africa portrays a bad image of a country that has for many years became the economic giant of African Continent until recently when Nigeria overtook it.

It is so unfortunate for locals to kill foreigners and asking them to leave South Africa when other nations are calling foreigners to invest in their nation. Locals can never build economy alone without the participation of foreigners.

It is so sad to hear South Africans begun killing foreigners in the name of they have “finished jobs” and “took away all the businesses” in the country. Jobs are about qualification whereas business is about hard work and strategy. That means, one cannot be given a job if one is not qualified and a one’s business can never prosper if one fails to work hard.

In my view, the issue behind the killings is not justifiable and South Africans should think twice before they engage in such mayhem.

One thing they should never forget is that there are many South Africans who have gone looking for jobs in abroad. What if other nations like Mozambique begin killing South Africans in the country? Will South Africans be happy?

Immigration has been there since time in memorial with America now leading in the number of immigrants in the country. Out f 350 million Americans approximately 50million of them are immigrants. I am quite sure many South Africans have occupied other parts of the world in large numbers since they are the people who are seen as the most learned and civilised in the African continent.

Although ordinary citizens are the one who are majorly blamed for the attacks, it is important to note the role of the leaders in the same. I heard that the Zulu King called Goodwill made an inciting speech some weeks ago and it is believed that he is the one who incited the locals to take arms against foreigners.

In many videos that have been circulating in the media and among the people across the world, the incident leaves more questions than answers. Surely, how can something really happen without the knowledge of authorities especially the police that I am sure they are all over South Africa?

I watched a video where four children were being burned! It took about ten minutes for the killers to burn those children. So I was wondering, where were the police who could rescue those children? It was so unfortunate that those children had to die despite their effort to rescue themselves by jumping all over while burning in car tires for approximately ten minutes. Those children, I believe were captured somewhere by those killers and taken to somewhere where they were tired and burned. That means it took a couple of minutes before they were killed. Police officers would have save the children if they had responded in time.

 According to the media reports, the government was not aware of the same until a photo of a Mozambican, who was stabbed in the chest by four men on the streets of Johannesburg, was published in the South African leading newspaper. Prior to that, about five people had been killed and the government was “unaware”.

South African government through the leadership of President Jacob Zuma should try to resuscitate the already worsening situation. I heard army officers have been deployed to contain the situation in many parts of that country just the way they did in 2008 when xenophobic attack claimed the lives of 62 foreigners.