When Charles Darwin visited the remote Pacific islands in 1835
he found the wildlife largely undisturbed by outside influence, and so it was
with Afghan journalism. Apart from a bit of help from the invading Russians and
some old colonial approaches British the Afghans had just done it their way.
So, it was against this backdrop that I was able to see if all
the things I held dear about the theory and practice of journalism made any
sense. The lovely people who queued up to be journalists in their newly ‘liberated’
country – mainly poets, sculptors and thinkers from a liberal arts background –
enjoyed my robust approach to holding the rich and powerful to account but
found it hard to maintain the level of intensity needed to make it all mean
something.
Fast forward 10 years and here I am in Uganda trying to make
sense of their media landscape, in not altogether dissimilar circumstances. I
saw it all writ large yesterday at Makerere University’s Annual Media Convention,
where the great and the good tried to make sense of investigative journalism.
Launching into his topic – ‘Investigative Journalism on the Ugandan Media Landscape: Are We Doing
Enough?’ – he derided the “easy pickings” mentality of journalists who
simply make the most out of somebody else’s report. “Where is the initiative?”
he asked.
He cited a “newsroom culture of indifference” as one of the
reasons for a poor recent record of investigations and bemoaned the obstructive
impact of big business, who use their clout as major advertisers to restrict journalists
nosing about in their affairs.
'Bored' with corruption
Counsel for defence, in the shape of senior editorial
executives from Daily Monitor (motto: Truth Every Day), New Vision (Uganda’s
Leading Daily) and The Observer (Taking You Deeper) burrowed further into the
current malaise, referring to poor salaries for journalists and the subsequent
corruption in the newsroom as companies and organisations pay for favourable
coverage.
Buried away in Lord Leveson’s statement on regulating the
British press, released yesterday, he said: “There
are truly countless examples of great journalism, great investigations and
great campaigns. Not that it is necessary or appropriate for the press always
to be pursuing serious stories for it to be working in the public interest.
“Some of its most important functions are to inform, educate and entertain and, when doing so, to be irreverent, unruly and opinionated.”
“Some of its most important functions are to inform, educate and entertain and, when doing so, to be irreverent, unruly and opinionated.”
I’ve spent nearly 40 years being “irreverent, unruly and
opinionated” so it’s nice to have his lordship’s blessing. But I can’t help but
feel Uganda’s Press might benefit from his words too.
As a student was brave enough to point out to the conference
he was “bored” with stories about corruption (see earlier “easy pickings”
comment). Me too, and I’ve only been here a few months.
Where are the stories about conservation, the environment, people
just doing bad things? Every day I see stories that make me think: What’s going
on there?
- The bus that crashed into an elephant in a National Park killing eight people and injuring 45. Figures show Uganda is second only to Ethiopia in the number of road accidents in Africa. It’s a national scandal that slips by unnoticed.
- The Army kills 25 ‘suspected poachers’, ironically in the same national park at the bus crash. No arrests, no trials, no questions asked. Is this really happening in a country with aims of ‘First World Status’, according to President Museveni?
My experience of running newspaper investigations in the UK,
US, the Caribbean and, yes, even Afghanistan points to the seeds of success
being planted at home with a hungry newsroom of motivated journalists.
And that motivation and inspiration comes in many forms, not
just money. And there is nothing more motivating than seeing your publication
make a difference.
