Towards A Code of Ethics for Members of Kenya Union of Journalists

Abstract

Journalism has become a popular profession for young people leaving school or college for it is easy to secure a job as a journalist because there are numerous newspapers, magazines and broadcasting stations that have emerged in the re- cent past. From a handful of only one broadcasting station at independence in 1963, there are over 50 publications to-date and five broadcasting stations. Journalists in these publications and broadcasting media have an obligation to themselves and to society to do their work properly and in an ethical manner. Often, they are faced with a dilemma on what to do when confronted with a moral issue. The purpose of this project was to provide members of the Kenya Union of Journalists, (KUJ) a body that brings together over 200 Kenyan journalists who work for both local and international media (the largest number of journalists under one body), with a code of ethics which would guide their day to day duties and help standardize their work ethics. This is hoped to result in professionalising journalism in Kenya. This project found that though members of the KUJ have been working without a code of ethics, they have been guided by those that are created by the media organizations for which they work. Those codes are a replica of those from the Sweden forum a large part of which does not address journalists within a Kenyan cultural context. The research method applied here was a group discussion facilitated by a ques- tionnaire and codes of ethics from other countries. These were provided to each participant before hand for discussion in a forthcoming forum on the project. Later, seven people associated with journalism and who had been given a copy of the recommendations of the forum separately met with the researcher to deliber- ated on those recommendations. From what emerged in the discussions, the re- searcher made the final analysis of their recommendations to formulate a code of ethics for KUJ members. It is hoped that the information and suggestions presented in this project will help journalists, journalism teachers, students and other people interested in the conduct of their own staff members in helping them to formulate their own codes of ethics and also furthering this project beyond just a code of ethics.