Mediatizing security operations: An ethical and professional assessment of Media coverage of insecurity in Kenya 6

ABSTRACT : This study sought to establish the adherence to professional and ethical principles of reporting insecurity matters by journalists in Kenya. Kenya has continuously grappled with national security issues since the 1998 US embassy bomb attack. Terrorist attacks have become a frequent and major cause of insecurity. This has been aggravated by the frequent sectarian, religious and ethnic violence in various parts of the country. Notably, some of the insecurity situations in Kenya are a result of conflict situations. From the findings of this study, it was evident that the media seldom used expert opinion in their news programmes on matters of insecurity. It was also clear that the largest percentage of insecurity as reported by the media resulted from terrorism activities followed by security operations by the state security machinery. From the findings of this study, some of the articles had sensational and unjustified news aspects in the story. However, the headlines of stories relating to insecurity were largely descriptive and informative and did not seek to incite or provoke any community to violence or vengeance. While the media did not perform poorly in terms of conflict sensitive reporting, some of the words that were used by some newspaper articles and TV clips were in violation of stipulated tenets of conflict sensitive reporting. The study recommends the separation of facts and opinion when reporting insecurity should be clearly upheld. Journalists should choose their words very carefully when reporting on conflict instigated insecurity matters in their stories. The media have a responsibility for contextualized, meaningful reporting where news programs have adequate background information on historical, cultural and even political perspectives of conflicts causing insecurity. This allows audiences to make informed decisions 56

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