How Fibi lost her innocence in the newsroom, a Christmas story
As a journalist, once you have accepted a bribe, you can never again be trusted as a professional person.
It was a day Fibi remembers vividly. Wednesday, December 16, 2020 was a fateful, mildly cool day with a gentle breeze. She parked her brand new Toyota Vitz on the street, a stone’s throw from the newspaper office where she worked.
When she got into the newsroom, the editor beckoned her to his office. He told her she had been selected to travel to Australia on an inaugural flight by an international airline. She was required to leave Nairobi on Sunday, December 22.
“I trust you don’t mind celebrating Christmas Down Under?” he said. “You will also be able to witness one of the greatest spectacles of New Year celebrations—the fireworks over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.”
Fibi, who was on her first year on the job after graduating from journalism school, was sceptical. Her ethics class had taught her that journalists should not accept gifts from news sources as this was likely to compromise their independence and integrity. Gifts included cash (“brown envelope”), free trips and goodies (junkets and freebies).
“Fibi, theory is different from practice,” the editor said. “We will never be able to send a reporter to Australia to cover Christmas and New Year celebrations on our own. We don’t have those kind of resources. The greater danger is journalists asking for money from news sources to report them favourably or to kill negative stories about them.”
Fibi had an urge to ask him whether the newspaper needed to cover Christmas and New Year celebrations in Australia but suppressed it. She agreed to go, so long as she was free to write what she wanted, without interference or influence from the airline.
“Okay, baby girl. You’ve the day off to prepare for the trip,” the editor said.
Fibi knew she had to be careful. “Your honesty is like virginity; it can only be lost once. Once you have accepted a bribe, you can never again be trusted as a professional person,” she repeated to herself those words that her ethics lecturer loved to quote from The News Manual, a Unesco-supported practical guide for journalists.
She proceeded to where she had parked her car. It was not there; it had disappeared. Stolen. After recovering from the shock, she reported the theft to the police and her insurance company. But she had to leave for Australia before resolving the matter.
Inserted something
Upon return, she wrote a series of articles about the Aussies. But for each of the articles published, the editor inserted something about the airline’s inaugural flight.
She shrugged it off. She was more concerned about her stolen car. The insurance company refused to pay, arguing that they had to wait and see if the vehicle would be found. Later, they tried to deny that theft was one of the risks covered by the policy.
The matter dragged on for a year. She also found out that there were many people with similar complaints.
She decided to write about it and informed the editor. But what she didn’t know was that the insurance company had got wind of her plans and complained to police, falsely, that a journalist was extorting a bribe not to write a negative story about the company.
So, without warning, DCI officers arrested Fibi on Friday, December 24, 2021. It was a truly “kamata kamata Christmas Eve”; they held her for three days, over the long weekend. On Monday, they released her, pending investigations, they said. But one year down the line, the investigations are pending.
Following the encounter with DCI, her newspaper published a letter a from a reader. Citing the police statement, the letter, which slipped through, said Fibi had fallen from grace: “It’s a pity that a journalist behaves like traffic police officers extorting bribes. Journalists are supposed to investigate corruption but are, themselves, corrupt. It’s a moral issue. If Fibi was not a journalist, she would not be anything better than a street whore.”
Fibi, dismayed by the publication of the letter, sued the newspaper for defamation. But the editor sent her on unpaid leave until the suit is finalised “in accordance with accepted labour practice”.
The suit is pending.
(Disclaimer: This story is fictitious; no identification with actual persons or organisations is intended or should be inferred. What’s intended is the general truthfulness of the story).
- 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
