The Nation Media Group has come under intense pressure recently after their Managing Editor for Special Projects editor, Dennis Galava was asked ‘to take some time off’ so that they could discuss “how he had handled an important and delicate assignment”. Mr. Galava had run a very stinging editorial on the Jubilee administration on Saturday Nation, January 2, 2016. After a twitter protest under the hashtag #reinstateGalava failed to bear any fruits,the heat has been turned a notch higher with #boycottNationMediaGroup trending in Kenya.
However, here are reasons why boycotting Nation Media Group would be bad for the media industry and Kenya,no matter what strings were pulled to have Mr. Galava given ‘time off’;
Big blow to media freedom
When it comes to publications, only The Standard and The Nation are authoritative and widely read due to their bold reporting. If The Nation was to wind up, it would The Standard on its own in a very dangerous battlefield. With time, it would be faced with the harsh reality of ‘if you can’t beat them,join them’. And just like that,the media freedom we have so much fought for would be gone.
What about the other departments?
NMG is not limited to The Nation newspaper. It has Nation FM- which has the most sober,if not the only sober, discussion on Kenyan radio through ‘State of the Nation’ morning programme. There’s NTV, with impressive shows such Woman Without Limits, Churchill Raw/Show and The Trend. It would be punitive of us to punish the whole house simply because their sister wronged us.
We already have a high rate of unemployment in Kenya
As a country battling high rates of unemployment, it would be shooting ourselves on the foot by closing down NMG- result being its thousands of employees being rendered jobless. Most of these people have someone depending on them for daily bread. The job market is too crowded to add on to more people,worse off at once.
For Mwalimu Andrew’s sake…
Is there anyone who doesn’t want to know staggers through 2016? Especially since he feels that the Lord has declared this year to be ‘his year’, and what will the laugh of his life do with the powers to read that she may be given mid this year?
We need answers first
Boycotting Nation Media Group before we get answers to the many questions we have will be tantamount to slapping the mosquito that lands on your testicles.
We would be playing directly into the hands of enemies of media freedom. This is the time to stand by Nation Media Group,and help them regain their freedom, integrity and public trust. Not boycott them,because two wrongs don’t make a right.
By Winston Eric
