Kenyan’s Fight Touches Kansas City Newsroom
The Kansas City Star wanted Peter Makori of Kenya to work in its newsroom to help “sensitize us and our readers about Africa and the rest of the world in general,” Randy Smith, deputy managing editor, told Journal-isms today.
That Makori has done so may be an understatement. “We’re afraid that people are trying to kill him. It’s really scary. It’s a nightmare,” Miriam Pepper, editorial page editor, said today. Her page has prepared an editorial on Makori for Thursday’s editions. Columnist Lewis Diuguid described the newsroom as “tense and anxious” over Makori’s situation.
Makori went back to Kenya last week to testify about his own experience as a journalist there. Two of his witnesses were reportedly murdered and the hearing has been suspended.
The Star, where Makori has been working since April as an Alfred Friendly journalism fellow, sent him off with a front-page story Sunday.
“Eight times he argued for his rights and the authorities eventually let him go. And eight times he went back to reporting their corrupt ways,” began the account by Rick Montgomery, accompanied by a video on the Star’s Web site.
“The last time nearly killed him. Thinking back recently on how the torture room looked, Makori – 33, soft-spoken, usually the picture of composure – cried.
“Allegedly beaten with long clubs, allowed mere scraps of food, he managed to outlive a good number of the rodents in his cell. He regained his freedom in 2004, ending 10 months of confinement on a trumped-up murder rap.
“And now, again, Makori has returned to take on the Kenyan authorities.
“Briefly interrupting his summer fellowship at The Kansas City Star, he flew back last week against the advice of friends in East Africa.
“‘I will not waver, I will not,’ he said before leaving. ‘I need to try to solve things for the people.’
“His chance begins Monday,” Montgomery’s story continued. “In the capital city of Nairobi, he is slated to appear four days before a human-rights tribunal hearing its inaugural case. His testimony will be the focal point of an inquiry into police detaining and allegedly torturing a reporter who dug too deeply below Kenya’s surface.”
The Nairobi newspaper The Nation picked up what happened next:
“A freelance journalist broke down and wept yesterday as he narrated how, according to him, police arrested and tortured him in connection with the murder of two chiefs,” Wahome Thuku reported for Tuesday’s editions.
“Mr Peter Makori Riang’a said the officers in Kisii District seized him on July 8, 2003, and beat him senseless before charging him with violent robbery.
“The charge was later changed to murder, and he was held in custody for a year before the State dropped the case, he said.”
Makori “said the Rioma police stripped him and tortured him for hours, demanding to know his links with a local criminal gang known as kizunguzungu, which had been linked to the murder of a chief and an assistant chief at Suneka on the night of July 7-8, 2003.
“The journalist said the officers took away his mobile phone and the camera he had used to take pictures of violent attacks in Kisii. They then took him to a forest at night and threatened to kill him if he did not give the information.”
Montgomery’s Kansas City Star story reported, “He said three officers used large boards to pound his ankles, his knees, his head and the soles of his feet.
“He wiggled his left thumb to show it had been broken.”
According to the Nation in Nairobi, Makuri “said he had spent millions of shillings on treatment in Kenya and the US, and that part of the expense was met by lobby group Committee for the Protection of Journalists.”
The Star, formerly a Knight Ridder paper, is now owned by the McClatchy Corp. Two McClatchy reporters covered the hearings, Munene Kilongi and Shasank Bengali, the Africa bureau chief who had been on his way to Darfur, Sudan, scene of continuing genocide.
Today they reported what was to be the subject of Pepper’s editorial:
“With two of his witnesses reportedly murdered, Kenyan journalist Peter Makori’s quest for justice was set back Tuesday when a tribunal suspended its review of his wrongful imprisonment.
“According to Kenyan media accounts, a man who was briefly jailed for the same killings as Makori – and whom Makori had planned to call as a witness – was hacked to death Saturday night by a mysterious death squad in Kisii, Makori’s hometown in western Kenya. The same day, a taxi driver Makori also had wanted to testify on his behalf was reportedly murdered by the same gang.”
“We’re following it very closely,”said Smith, who said he communicates with Makori every day. Makori had written a weekly column for the editorial page, and worked on the news and metro desks, he told Journal-isms.
“He’s written a lot about various problems in Kenya and Africa, about Darfur, and problems in the government with excessive salaries that elected officials have given themselves,” Pepper said, “and Kenyans’ feelings after they’ve come to America. It’s been a great experience for us on the editorial board to get his impressions, and the questions he asks of guests that we might not have asked.”
Makori has also gotten out into the community.
“In the spring the Kenyan journalist spoke at two Kansas City high schools. One was public, an unruly place where he was stunned to observe many students shouting vulgarities or stretched out at their desks, asleep,” Montgomery wrote on Sunday.
“The other school was private. There he saw young people learning – as attentive and respectful as most pupils in Kenya.
“‘I see two worlds apart,’ he said. ‘ . . . Something must be done!’
“‘I’m concerned it is a time bomb, which will explode at a time America may not expect.'”
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Rare Move: Hampton Appeals Accreditation Ruling
“Journalism school officials at Hampton University plan to appeal the findings of a group that this year failed to fully accredit the school,” Georgina Stark reported Tuesday in the Daily Press of Newport News, Va.
On May 5, the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication voted provisional accreditation for Hampton, upholding its site-team committee’s recommendation almost unanimously.
The Hampton program was found to be out of compliance on two of the council’s nine standards. One was “Mission, Governance and Administration”; the other “Scholarship: Research, Creative and Professional Activity.”
Three other historically black universities – Florida A&M, Southern and Winston-Salem State – and the mainstream New York and Auburn universities also received provisional accreditation. But only Hampton has protested its decision so vigorously.
“Susanne Shaw, executive director of the council, said it has been at least six years since a university appealed the council’s decision,” Stark wrote. “‘Any school has the right to appeal, but not many do,’ Shaw said.
“The school will appeal the decision on July 25 before a three-person board in Chicago.
[Added July 3: The June issue of Ascent, the accrediting council publication, said the appeals board would meet in Arlington, Va., and that:
[“Charles Edwards, Jr., dean of of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Drake University, is chair of the Appeals Board. Other members are Eddith Dashiell, associate professor in the School of Journalism at Ohio University, and Merrill Rose, independent public relations consultant in New York.
[“Edwards will present the board’s recommendation to the Council at its Sept. 1 meeting.”]
“Tony Brown, dean of the journalism school, would not comment on the appeal,” and university spokeswoman Yuri Rodgers Milligan “would not say exactly why the school is appealing the council’s ruling,” the Daily Press story said.
“‘There are certain procedures they have that were not followed,’ said Rodgers Milligan, who would not elaborate,” Stark reported.
Provisional accreditation means the schools have up to two years to come into compliance with accreditation standards.
Although Brown would not comment for the Daily Press story, this week he circulated an e-mailed response to a student in which Brown said:
“Employers of journalism and communications graduates do not hire people because they graduated from college or the school was accredited, they hire them because they have the skill sets the job demands. While an excellent program is a definite plus, you’re not a good writer simply because you have a degree from an accredited program, but because you have applied yourself and developed your writing skills.”
Hampton’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications is the result of a $10 million commitment from the Scripps Howard Foundation to upgrade journalism education on the historically black campus.
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Univision Breaks Viewing Record With World Cup
“Univision’s broadcast of the Mexico v. Argentina World Cup soccer match on Saturday (June 24) drew 6.7 million viewers, including 4.3 million in the 18-49 demo, making it the largest single sports telecast among Hispanic viewers ever, including the Super Bowl,” John Consoli reported Monday in MediaWeek.
“The game, which aired in the late morning in the U.S., was also the fifth most watched broadcast of any type on Spanish-language television.”
- J.A. Adande, Los Angeles Times: Ghana Controls Its Own Destiny
- J.A. Adande, Los Angeles Times: U.S. Is Little Fish in Very Large Pond
- Godwin Yaw Agboka, Accra (Ghana) Mail: Black Stars Have Compelled the U.S. Media to Show Ghana
- Kenneth J. Cooper, Bay State Banner: The color of the World Cup [Added June 29]
- Mike Freeman, Jacksonville (Fla.) Times-Union: Americans’ view on Cup otherworldly
- Courtland Milloy, Washington Post: Drinking in World History by the Cup
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“Network Neutrality” Out of Senate Bill – for Now
“The Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday approved a large communications/video franchising reform bill after a long and heated debate on the issue of network neutrality,” John Eggerton reported today for Broadcasting & Cable.
“Network neutrality is defined by Technology Daily as the “notion that Bell and cable companies should not be allowed to control Internet traffic traveling over their high-speed wires,” limiting its accessibility.
“The bill passed by a vote of 15-7, but there was an 11-11 tie on the network neutrality portion of the bill, so that amendment was defeated. (A tie is a defeat.),” Eggerton wrote. “One Republican, Sen. Olympia Snow (R-Maine), a co-sponsor of the bill, crossed over to vote with the Democrats.
“Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens said that, if network neutrality had passed, the overall bill would not have made it all the way through Congress because the issue is so divisive. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), on the other side, countered that the bill may not have the 60 votes it needs to pass the Senate because it doesn’t mandate network neutrality.
“The bill now moves to the floor, where the net-neutrality debate will almost certainly be renewed and more amendments offered.”
The National Association of Hispanic Journalists issued a statement last week saying it “supports the principle of ‘network neutrality,’ which preserves a free and open Internet and will ensure that all Internet users can access content or run applications and devices of their choosing without manipulation or discrimination. NAHJ takes this position because it is critical that all communities, including the Latino community, have unfettered access to information from a diversity of viewpoints without artificial and unnecessary obstacles.”
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the cable industry trade group, applauded “the committee’s rejection of unnecessary regulation of the Internet.”
- Deborah Lathen, Broadcasting & Cable: Net Neutralityâ??Spring Sweeps or Last Season’s Rerun?
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N.C. Central President Calls Media Portraits Unfair
In an op-ed piece he e-mailed to dozens of national publications, James Ammons, the chancellor of North Carolina Central University, “lashed out at the public’s ‘unfavorable comparisons’ between NCCU and Duke, and at being ‘tagged with stereotypical labels,” Christina Asquith reported Tuesday in Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.
The dancer accusing Duke University lacrosse players of rape is a student at North Carolina Central.
“References in news stories to North Carolina Central as ‘scrappy and willful’ or ‘a poor cousin to Duke University’ create a picture of an institution that is financially strapped, lacks sophistication and is devoid of excellence,” wrote Ammons. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The op-ed so far has run in the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Wilmington (N.C.) News- Star, Anthony Anamelechi reported today on the Black College Wire.
- Andrew Cohen, Washington Post: The Media Rush to Duke’s Defense
- Hal Crowther, Independent Weekly, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.: Sympathy for the Devils?
- Joseph C. Phillips, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Durham D.A. May Be Looking for Cosmic Justice in Duke Case – But is That Justice?
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How Can Asian Men “Get Some Media Love?”
“I think of the Asian men who have gained the news spotlight in the last decade,” Thomas T. Huang, Texas Living editor of the Dallas Morning News, wrote Tuesday on the Poynter Institute Web site.
“John Huang, the Clinton associate who was embroiled in a 1996 fundraising scandal. Wen Ho Lee, the nuclear scientist who in 1999 was wrongfully accused of spying. James Yee, the Army chaplain accused of espionage at Guantanamo Bay. All criminal charges against him were dropped in 2004.
“Other than a handful of actors; or the occasional athletes like Yao Ming, Apolo Ohno and Ichiro Suzuki; or the occasional brilliant scientist like David Ho; how often do you see Asian men in your newspaper or on the TV news? Where have you gone, Eric Shinseki?
“What’s an Asian dude got to do to get some media love? Seems like he either has to be a superstar or an accused spy. Or he has to sing and dance incredibly badly and embrace his own humiliation, like William Hung, the ‘American Idol’ reject who has assumed the mantle of Entertaining Coolie. ‘Dance for us, William! Now dance for us some more!'”
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NAHJ’s Olmeda Defends Parity Project
“The news industry is failing the parity goal. The Parity Project is one program fighting against the tide. To say that it is not successful is to miss the point entirely,” Rafael Olmeda, the new president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, said in a message to the Poynter Institute today.
He was responding to a piece by Chuck Strouse in the Miami Times dated June 29 asserting that “None of the nation’s twenty largest newspapers has signed on” to the project, “and Hispanics remain horribly underrepresented in print, radio, and TV.”
But Olmeda said, “The Parity Project’s goal is to go after the nation’s ‘worst offenders’ – the newspapers throughout the country that have the fewest Latino staffers even though the Latino communities around them are rapidly growing.
“In the three years that the program has been working, we’ve increased the number of Latino journalists working at the first 18 media companies we’ve partnered with by 40 to 100 percent.”
- George Benge, Gannett Co.: Gannett Journalists Address Cultural, Innovation Issues at NAHJ
- Rafael Olmeda, Editor & Publisher: Latino Journalists and Newsroom Parity
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Short Takes
- “Recently retired Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism professor Phyllis T. Garland is battling cancer and has been hospitalized since April. At press time, Garland, 70, was residing at Calvary Hospice in Brooklyn,” Wayne Dawkins reported today in the Black Alumni Network newsletter for Columbia Journalism School graduates. “In May 2004, Garland wrapped up 31 years of teaching at the J-school. She was the only black, tenured full-time professor at the school, and in 1981, Garland was the first woman of any race to become tenured at the school, E.R. Shipp, ’79, reported in our December 1997 edition. Upon her retirement, the trustees of Columbia University named Garland professor emerita.”
- Rick Smith, a “character larger than life” with a booming bass voice and keen news judgment that earned him a living for more than 30 years, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure, Cathy Mong reported today in the Dayton Daily News. Smith, 54, was assignment manager at WHIO-TV and had planned to retire in December, the story said. He had worked at the station since 1974.
- “Barbara Walters opened ‘The View’ Wednesday without Star Jones Reynolds, somberly reading out a careful explanation about why Ms. Jones Reynolds would not be back,” Michelle Greppi reported today for Television Week. “‘It is becoming uncomfortable for us to pretend that everything is the same at this table.’ Ms. Walters said. “The day before, Ms. Jones Reynolds had surprised her co-hosts and fans by announcing she’d be leaving ‘The View’ after nine years on the show,” Greppi wrote.
- Herb Frazier, reporter for the Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C., is on a week-long visit to Sierra Leone, where he is participating in a two-day workshop co-hosted by the U.S. Embassy to help train more than 20 “senior media practitioners” from the electronic and print media, Saidu Kamara reported on Monday in the Standard Times of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
- Fox News host Geraldo Rivera, who was involved in a public dispute last fall with the New York Times, “made it plain today that he enjoys good news – and that he doesn’t ever expect any from The New York Times,” Editor & Publisher reported today. On Fox’s “Good Day New York,” Rivera “challenged ‘Good Day’ co-host Jodi Applegate — who was holding up an edition of the Times – to find one story with something positive in it.”
- Robin Roberts said she was shocked by her own reaction when she was approached to fill in on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” for Charles Gibson, now the full-time solo anchor of “World News Tonight,” Gail Shister reported today in the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I said, ‘No way. Two women don’t do that.’ I, too, bought into the whole man-woman model. Then I caught myself going, ‘Huh? What am I doing? What’s the big deal?’ I love doing the show with Diane. We’re good together. People like us,” she said, referring to co-host Diane Sawyer. However, Roberts added, audiences “want to see male points of view. They want to see the guy. I’m not offended by that. I love all perspectives,” Shister reported.
- “After a Televisa-led investor group failed in its bid to acquire Univision Communications, the Mexican broadcast giant says it will ‘vigorously pursue’ other options in the burgeoning U.S. Hispanic market,” Allison Romano reported today in Broadcasting & Cable.
- Betty Anne Williams has been named director of editorial recruitment and development of the Gazette and Southern Maryland Newspapers, both new positions for the group, the suburban Maryland newspapers reported today. Williams, a veteran of USA Today, the Associated Press and Black College Wire, will continue as regional editor for the Gazette in Prince George’s County, the story said.
- Veronica Byrd has been named senior editor, news at Seventeen, according to the Media Bistro web site. She had been features editor at Essence magazine.
- CNN’s Soledad O’Brien has been named one of Newsweek’s “15 People Who Make America Great.” Jonathan Darman wrote in the magazine, “O’Brien’s reporting in the aftermath of Katrina displayed an inner rage that was surprising to viewers, and entirely appropriate for the occasion. Four days after the storm, O’Brien was the first to truly nail the haplessness of FEMA Director Michael Brown, asking: ‘How is it possible we have better intel than you?'”
- Dana Hedgpeth, Howard Bryant, J. Freedom du Lac, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Anthony Shadid, Theola Labbé, Ernesto Lodoño, Jose Antonio Vargas, Yuki Noguchi and Annys Shin are among those mentioned in a piece Monday by Washingtonian magazine writer Harry Jaffe, “After the Buyouts – Who’s In, Who’s Out at Washington Post.”
- In Nigeria, “Two journalists charged with sedition over a story about President Olusegun Obasanjo’s new jet pled not guilty in court today,” the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on Tuesday. “Mike Gbenga Aruleba, a presenter at leading private television station African Independent Television (AIT), and Rotimi Durojaiye, a senior correspondent for the Daily Independent newspaper, appeared in court in the capital, Abuja, on a six-count indictment.”
- “The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores today’s decision by an Egyptian court to sentence two journalists to a year in prison for publishing a report critical of President Hosni Mubarak, his family, and other top officials,” the organization said Monday. “The court in Al-Warrak, north of Giza, sentenced Ibrahim Eissa, editor of the independent weekly Al-Dustour, and Sahar Zaki, a reporter for the paper, to a year in prison for insulting Mubarak, the newspaper said in a statement today.”