Dilemmas in media coverage of human rights in Kenya

Abstract

Media practitioners and entities play an essential role in enabling human beings to enjoy the rights enshrined in article 19 of universal declaration of human rights, and interrelated human rights. However, as moral agents they are bound to be occasionally in dilemmas in the process of undertaking their duties. Cognizant of the fact that social, political, economic and moral environments varies, this study, examines the various kinds of dilemmas that media practitioners and media entities face and deal with in Kenya. The study used Kurt Lewin’s gatekeeping theory, which was adopted by Barzilai-Nahon. A qualitative approach with descriptive research design was employed with data being sourced from Kenya’s four largest media enterprises, namely the Nation Media Group, the Standard Group, Mediamax and Radio Africa Limited. Through purposive sampling, the study targeted respondents who had gatekeeping capability and experience in reporting or editing stories on human rights. Four kinds of dilemmas were found to be prevalent: ownership interests versus public interests; advertisers’ commercial interests versus public welfare; government interests versus professional obligations; and societal moral values versus journalistic responsibility. An interesting from the study was that the media practitioners’ ethnic, religious, and moral identity were the genesis of these dilemmas. From these, the authors concluded that whereas these dilemmas cripple media practitioners’ capacity to undertake their duties that are crucial to human beings’ enjoyment of the right to be informed and to knowledge, and attendant rights, in many cases the might of media owners and government, advertisers’ interests prevailed. Finally, the study recommends critical and creative strategies for avoiding horns of dilemmas by retraining the media practitioners who cover issues of human rights on the protection and promotion of human rights.