Thread by @gathara

This is hardly the first time radio shows and even print media are saying derogatory things about women. Last week, @StandardKenya suggested Kenyan women's "hearts melt and knees become weak seconds after a man introduces himself to them as a foreigner". Any action against them?

https://twitter.com/NationAfrica/status/1376092979396501504

While what the DJs said was undoubtedly stupid and offensive, I think we must be careful about having state bureaucrats decide what speech is allowed. What rules is @CA_Kenya applying? How can we avoid such power being abused in the name of defending morality ala @EzekielMutua?

Audiences have more power in the digital age as gate keepers. It was online outrage that led to suspension and firing of the DJs and withdrawal of advertisers. That should be considered when gauging necessity and scale of GoK involvement. We have more tools in the toolbox.

One other thing. When researching ethical decion-making in KE newsrooms, I found that media professionals get little training on methodical ethical reasoning, and rely on gut instinct, experience and consultations with colleagues which creates all sorts of blind spots.

This is not to excuse what the DJs did but rather to illustrate that the response by Homeboys and by other media houses and regulatory agencies needs to go beyond the punitive and to address the lack of ethical decision-making infrastructure and guidance for media professionals.

This is about more that simply developing codes of conduct. In any case, research has shown that such codes rarely determine day-to-day behavior. In my research, few Kenyan editors and journalists actually knew what was in their own media houses' codes.

In the digital age, where audiences are not discrete, can have differing even contradictory expectations, and can bring massive pressure to bear (think of how few Kenyans read @nytimes and yet how KOT can punish discretions) media houses ignore ethical training at their peril.

In case you are interested in my thesis, you can read it here:
academia.edu/43029686/Ethic…