The commemoration of this year’s World Press Freedom Day was anchored under the theme; “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we gather here against the backdrop of heavy rains that have visited death and destruction upon our fellow countrymen and women. The sights of fathers carrying their dead children, mothers weeping over their children, and families staring at their lost homes have been with us for the last few days. Roads have been cut off, bridges washed away, and property of immense value lost. The responses and the reactions have been the all too familiar “do not fight with nature,” “move to higher ground”, “do not tempt nature.”
For years on now, the media has reported on clear signs of ecological distress across the world and Kenya in particular. Informed by cutting-edge environmental research, we have pointed out extreme cases of loss of biodiversity, painted a fairly clear picture of the environmental crisis building up, and called out on duty bearers to act for the greater good of all. By and large, the awareness of what we are facing as a country is there, partly due to the constant drumming of the message by media, civil society, and other actors. The policymakers know what needs to be done. The people know what they can do at their level. The government and its agencies know what they ought to do.
But beyond this awareness, beyond the slogans we craft during conferences, beyond the knee-jerk, often belated reactions to disasters such as the one we are witnessing at the moment, what more are we doing at our levels to stem the ecological apocalypse that is closing in on us? How do we step up this awareness to actionable, prudent initiatives that people can collectively own – and more importantly, an action at the individual level?
I stand here to offer an equivocal statement of our commitment as KEG to play an active role in turning around this sad state of affairs. Our resolve is to move this debate beyond conference rooms beyond slogans, beyond the news elements, and beyond the knee-jerk reactions.
We will continue to do stories that expose irresponsible actors, be it the government or the people. We will continue to hold the government to account for not only its actions, inaction, and omissions but also its commitment to obligations, including promises made on environmental wellness; protection, sustainable use, and conservation. We will continue to demand transparency in governance a greater good. We will continue to critically analyze the policies and the laws we are implementing to ensure they serve the greatest good of the greatest majority of the people.
It’s our duty to go beyond the primary roles of informing, educating, and entertaining audiences. Today, media must analyse and interpret issues, calling audiences to action and speaking truth to power!
Beyond this, however, we want to shift the gears a little. We want to take this conversation to the communities, the citizens, and Wanjiku. The people remain the most important cog in the wheel of governance.
It is them to who we owe allegiance! We are Wanjiku’s Watchdog! Without their support, understanding, and cooperation, everything is in vain. We must now begin to find more effective ways of empowering them to take action and to own up to our collective future as a country. We must take deliberate steps to engage them at their levels, step up the engagements, innovate on the mode of engagement, and use new media tools and innovations to mobilize action and drive policy reforms. Through our reporting and community engagements, we must now aim to cultivate the spirit of individual responsibility.
We all understand that in the last few years, the media has generally taken a serious beating in almost all aspects. Contrary to what some misguided people may think, this beating is not only reflected in the hollowness of journalist’s pockets. This is a small price to pay. In reality, the beating is reflected in the confusion you are now seeing around; diminishing capacity to hold power to account, to invoke positive action and outlook among the people, and to mobilize action for policy reforms. The fact of the matter is that weakened media affects the majority but benefits a small minority—the power elite and their allies. For them, the citizen is a mere pawn in a high-stakes game.
We, therefore, call on your support to strengthen the media and its centrality in all these conversations. We want Parliament to not only hasten to repeal the laws crafted to hold media in bondage but also to enact new and progressive laws supporting media roles. We have already presented our proposals on the same. We want the executive to review the policies they have enacted to deny the country the benefit of free media. We want the judiciary to appreciate the role and nature of media work in their determinations. Finally, we want the people to rally behind the media, and together, we will confront our challenges as a people.
Internally, the media has undertaken intense soul-searching of its own, and the results are beginning to show in the transformation the industry is experiencing. What is now needed is the support of all.I want to end by acknowledging, and paying my special tribute to journalists around the world who have risked their lives by being in the line of a petulant Mother Nature’s fury to report and document the impact of climate change. Its evidence is the terror, anxiety, destruction, death, and trauma we are witnessing in the country, regionally and globally.
Your work was not in vain, for the world is now much freer with the information you brought forth.
To all of us, let us take courageous steps to protect our planet, but also to celebrate its wonders. I leave you with the words of Rachel Carson: “The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.” Ahsanteni.
Thank you and God bless you.
