Don’t use ‘jihadist’ in news stories; that is capable of promoting hate

The first article I wrote upon becoming the public editor of NMG was titled “Media misrepresentation of Muslims and Islam: Who takes the blame?” (Daily Nation, February 19, 2015).

It was a plea to NMG journalists to avoid demonising Muslims and Islam in their news stories by using such terms as Islamic terrorists and jihadists. The indiscriminate use of the terms promotes Islamophobia. But I was up against a newsroom culture that was insensitive to the use of words or terms that were misleading and offensive to Muslims.

The perpetuation of Islamophobia and prejudice by demonising Muslims as immoral and dangerous people through media stories lingers on.

On September 21, the Daily Nation published on page 12 a news story with a headline that suggested jihadists are child rapists: “Jihad and rape: Beware the stranger stalking your child.” With justification, Abu Ayman Abusufian, of Jamia Mosque, Nairobi, and his fellow Muslims took umbrage against the headline.

 “The article was centred on cybercrime and had nothing to do with Jihad. In the 924-word article, only one paragraph, of 17 words, had a reference about ‘jihadist’ and it begs the question why the term Jihad was used in the headline,” said Mr Abusufian.

The Daily Nation has no excuses, I must say. There is no nexus between Jihad and rape, as Mr Abusufian rightly points out. The Nation should stop using the loaded words, Jihad and jihadists, in news stories.

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Misuse of the word severally

Boniface Ngocho says many people unknowingly learn English by reading newspapers. They are, therefore, misled when newspapers use words incorrectly, he says. He picks the word “severally” for an example.

 “In all the cases where I have come across the use of the word ‘severally’, the context implies that it is intended to mean several times,” says Mr Ngocho. “In the Sunday Nation of September 27, 2020, a senior columnist writes: ‘However, the Constitution puts limits on how many MPs can be nominated and, indeed, the overall number of MPs.

 “To change that, the Constitution would have to be amended.... It has been tried severally and failed, most famously under the former National Assembly Majority Leader, Mr Aden Duale.’

 “If the word ‘severally’ is assigned its usual meaning, the last sentence above would not have a very intelligible meaning. I hope you can communicate to the sub-editors and editors of your esteemed media organisation that, beyond the role of conveying information, they should try to stick to the rules and common usage of the language they communicate in. Unless, of course, the language cannot effectively deliver the message and they are”, in which case they can be creative.

Right on! The misuse of the word ‘severally’ has become an epidemic. It’s misused by all and sundry. If you google, you will find more than 400 cases of its misuse in Nation stories.

Several times

This is despite advice by wordsmith Philip Ochieng. In his article “Why severally and several times have separate meanings” (Daily Nation, January 12, 2018, he quoted examples of the misuse of the word, including one by a scholarly columnist in the Nation who wrote: “I told the students that the professor taught me modern poetry and severally mentioned ‘modernism’ in T. S. Eliot’s poetry....”

 “If you mean ‘several times’, please say ‘several times’, not severally. For — let me warn again for the umpteenth time — though severally exists, it does not mean ‘several times’. No, severally only means ‘separately’, ‘separate(d) from’, ‘severed from’, ‘apart from’, ‘one after the other’, ‘suchlike’,” Mr Ochieng said.

“Why have you dropped Ochieng’s column?” Patrick Maina of Waithaka asked me last week. “Tell the editor we miss him.”

The Public Editor is an independent news ombudsman who handles readers’ complaints on editorial matters including accuracy and journalistic standards. Email: [email protected]. Call or text 0721989264.