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The
Liberian media and poverty
Wednesday,
January 10, 2007
By Moses D. Sandy
mds27@temple.edu
More
than six years ago, I Left Liberia and sought refuge
in the United States. Prior to my resettlement, I
worked in the Liberian media as a journalist. I
started my career in 1989 as a cub reporter within the
then-television department at the Ministry of
Information Culture Affairs and Tourism (MICAT). From
1989 to the year, 2000, I rose through the rank and
file of the profession. The last position I held in
the press was Editor-in-Chief, News and Public Affairs
Department, Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS).
I
love journalism, and ingrained in me is journalism.
But one thing I hated about journalism in Liberia was
poverty. The Liberian media is impoverished. Poverty,
as defined by Webster‘s (2000), is the “condition
or quality of being poor.” That’s the kind of
condition I like most Liberian journalists, had to
work and live with. We were always penniless. We had
tattered and antiquated print and broadcast equipment.
We
read newscast from manuscripts because most newsrooms
neither had typewriters nor computers. We ran
intermittent broadcast hours because most radio
stations could not keep up with the high costs of
fuel. In print, the appearance of some newspapers on
the newsstand was infrequent because most publishers
could not afford the costs of printing. The word
Internet was never a part of our daily vocabularies.
Even though some of us had college education, our
monthly incomes could neither sustain our families nor
us because we were underpaid. The monthly salary of
most journalists at the time did not exceed $50. Some
made as low as $10. And salaries were rarely paid on
time. In summary, our working and living conditions
were horrendous.
Kato/
Gratuity
Most
of us barely made it. We survived on handouts or
gratuities simply referred to in Liberian press corps
as, kato. Our social and economic life was hinged on
the generosity of public officials and newsmakers.
Even though the media is universally considered the
fourth estate of society, insinuating that media
practitioners should be middle-class citizens who are
socially well off, in Liberia, our situation was the
irony. Literally, we were beggars.
The
giving and acceptance of kato was a common practice in
the media. Kato, despite its ethical implications was
a de facto way of life for the press. It was a common
language for reporters, media and business executives,
politicians, and the ordinary newsmakers. In some
newsrooms, kato played a crucial role in
decision-making regarding the assigning of news beats,
news contents, and editorials.
Simply
put, kato was a prime factor in the gathering and
reporting of news stories. Although I left Liberia
more than six years ago, poverty as a social quandary
in the Liberian media is, still the same, or it has
further degenerated. Poverty and kato are evil forces
that the press contends with in today’s Liberia. In
2006, the Analyst newspaper in an editorial noted,
“Journalists are amongst the most impoverished
citizens in Liberia. Many live on handouts, dying as
paupers.”
Prevalence
Destitution
in the Liberian press is not unique to a particular
media institution. It is a problem that affects nearly
all media institutions. Currently, there are 38 rural
and 12 urban radio stations, 41 newspapers, and
approximately two television stations in Liberia.
Despite the proliferation of media institutions,
professional journalism in Liberia is being hindered
by poverty. For instance, in the year, 2006, as noted
by the Analyst, many Liberian journalists, who had
acceded to what the paper called “The highest
echelon of their careers, died because they could not
afford quality medical attention.” The average
monthly salary for a reporter as claimed by the Press
Union of Liberia (PUL) former Secretary General, Frank
Sainworla fluctuates $15 to $20.
In
2006, Radio Veritas, one of Liberia’s finest
broadcast institutions reduced its broadcast hours and
let some of its best broadcasters off the hook because
of financial crisis. In the same year, Star Radio,
another local radio station, was constrained to
redundant some of its broadcasters because of dwindle
in its operating budget. The station, according to
reports, also intends to lay off additional staff
during the 2007 fiscal year because of inadequate
monetary support. At the nation’s own broadcast
entity, Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS), prior to
the appointment of Mr. Charles Snetter in 2006 as
director general, government was indebted to the
employees for 17 months.
Causation
The
Liberian media does not exist in utopia. Research
showed that the hardship the press corps now grapples
with is a by-product of the existing economic
landscape in Liberia. Eighty percent of Liberia’s
estimated 3.2 million people live below the poverty
line and unemployment is 70 percent. Liberia
experienced more than 14 years civil war. The war
crumbled the nation’s economies and basic social
services. Because of the decline, the media was
directly or indirectly affected.
For
example, the market for advertisement is meager. There
are very few advertisers in Liberia and the cost of
advertisement is extremely low. A full-page
advertisement in most Liberian newspapers according to
Mr. Sainworla, costs $200. And the price of newspapers
is $20 (40 cents U.S.). Liberia has a literacy rate of
an estimated 38%. Because of the nation’s high
illiteracy rate, readership is very low. Giving the
inadequacy of funds generated from sales coupled with
the astronomical costs associated with print and
broadcast journalism, the Liberian media finds it
extremely difficult to sustain itself.
Impacts
Poverty
is negatively impacting journalism in Liberia. The
impacts are enormous. But for the sake of this
article, I will dwell on some of the most salient
implications: inefficiency, brain drain, ethical
transgressions, and dependence
Inefficiency
Even
though the Liberian media has come a long way in
bridging the communication gap between the government
and the governed, the media is yet to reach its full
potential in the gathering and dissemination of public
information because of poverty.
At the moment, the signals of most radio and
television stations can barely travel beyond the
confines of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. And because
of high transportation costs and deplorable road
conditions, newspaper circulations and coverage in
terms of news gathering and reporting are limited to
Monrovia and bordering counties. The inability of the
media to cover the entire nation negates rural
inhabitants, who account for a greater percentage of
the nation’s 3.2 million population the opportunity
of being a part of the global village. Such condition
lay the basis for hear say amongst the people.
Brain
Drain
The Liberian media is greatly affected by brain drain.
Although the situation can be attributed to several
causes such as death and political, poverty is also a
prime element. Because of poverty, most trained and
experienced journalists in search of better
opportunities have literally abandoned the profession.
As a result of the exodus, the Liberian press corps
has seen an upsurge in the recruitment of high school
dropouts and social misfits as journalists. The
President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), George
Barpen in a recent statement regarding the egregious
situation, maintained, “ Some newspapers managing
editors are not high school graduates,” (Allafrica.Com,
2006). The recruitment of high school dropouts and
social misfits, who have myopic understanding of
journalistic principles, contributes significantly to
the many professional lapses in the Liberian media.
Ethical
Transgressions
Poverty
is one of the foremost precipitating factors for the
existing credibility problems in the Liberian media.
Because the press is poor and literally hungry, and
some of its members are always on the look for
handouts, or kato, professionalism and media ethics
(objectivity, honesty, accuracy, integrity, etc) are
usually compromised.
For
instance, in 2006, Liberia’s President, Johnson
Sirleaf, in an outburst about how money was allegedly
changing hands in the Liberian media and the
consequences it had on news contents, claimed “Some
media practitioners were checkbook journalists,” (Frontpageafrica,
2006). In 2006, few months following the October, 2005
general and presidential elections in Liberia, the
Carter Center and the National Democratic Institute (NDI)
amid reports that some presidential hopefuls allegedly
paid journalists to write favorable stories about them
during the election, cautioned the press to be
“Mindful of the way they conducted themselves so
that they are not taken for granted.” The
institutions in a report noted, “Those who had money
to spend landed on the front pages, and those who did
not, had to do with limited coverage,” (Frontpageafrica,
2006).
Research
on media ethics showed that the giving and acceptance
of gratuities such as money and costly material things
create dual relationship between journalists and
newsmakers, and sometimes makes the adherence to
objectivity, a cardinal principle in journalism a
challenge for media personnel. It undermines the
credibility of the press and creates ethical dilemma
for media practitioners in the execution of their
duties. According to seasoned journalist, John Pallato,
Editor of the US based eWeek.com’s Enterprise
Application Center, media institutions in many
societies prohibit journalists in their employ from
accepting gifts because even the smallest gift carries
with it the assumption that “Whose bread I eat, his
song I sing.”
Dependence
Giving
the inability of the media to sustain itself because
of insolvency, it can be argued that Liberia in
truest, does not have an independent press. Liberia
has an ideological independent media, which survival
hinges on charity. Dependence on charity makes the
media vulnerable to infiltrators.
Conclusion
Admittedly,
I know that the problems and professional lapses
mentioned in this article are not unique to the
Liberian press. These are problems that the media in
most developing countries, especially in Africa
grapple with. But with a concerted effort involving
the Liberian government, international community,
Press Union of Liberia (PUL), and owners of media
institutions, these problems no matter how Herculean
they may seem, can be alleviated.
The
Liberian government through MICAT and the PUL in
particular, can address the issue of poverty in the
Liberian media by seeking and mobilizing resources for
economic empowerment. To do this, the PUL must
transcend its current role of media advocacy to
formulating strategies that would address matters
relating to the salaries and welfare of journalists,
merger of media institutions with common editorial
goals and objectives, costs of printing materials,
bridging the digital (technological) divide, among
others.
Unless
the Liberian media is economically empowered, no
amount of seminars, workshops, trainings, etc would
reduce the existing professional lapses because the
trained and experienced journalists in search of
better opportunities would always quit. The first law
of nature is “self preservation.”
Moses
D. Sandy, former Editor-in-Chief News & Public
Affairs, Liberian Broadcasting Service (LBS), lives in
Delaware.
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