Covering trade issues in the South is no mean feat when most of
the drama and decision-making sessions take place a long way away
and government bodies do not want to part with information.
Yet journalists are supposed to be the watchdog for millions of
people who are not aware of what is happening. It is our job to
break down the jargon for them, immerse them in the debates and
explain the impact of trade arrangements on their lives.
As trade reporters we see ourselves as having a duty to report
in a way that educates the public, makes them aware of the
decisions that government officials are about to make and explains
how these will affect ordinary people.
The assumption in the North is that Southern media understand
the multilateral trading system. In fact, understanding is
fragmented and poor.
Local journalists, driven by local stories, usually find it hard
to comprehend the actions of international players - let's say in
the global coffee market. As a result, media stories may not, for
example, highlight the impact of global prices. Trade bodies need
to work with journalists so that the right information reaches
farmers.
Demystify trade
If I were in a government trade department, I would find ways to
interest journalists to look deeper - for example, brainstorming on
how to cover stories such as the negotiations on Economic
Partnership Agreements. (These regional negotiations between Europe
and countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific are set to
replace the Lomé Conventions and are slotted for completion in
2007.)
This trade policy debate is often ignored by the mainstream
media and is still hidden from the general public in academic and
trade journals. There is little effort to interest them and little
talk about it outside government boardrooms and among
non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Local editors have yet to
comprehend its impact.
As for international debates involving Africa, it is hard for a
journalist to keep up - especially when there are no specialized
reporters.
African media houses still have no capacity to send journalists
to cover many of these sessions. While most of the big media
companies send several journalists to cover trade talks, I have
often been the only person from the South to cover them.
For instance, I was the sole Kenyan journalist covering the WTO
ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in 2005. The national broadcaster
and the government-run Kenya News Agency were absent.
Writing from the South, it is hard to know who is pressing for
what tariff and why. Southern angles are often missing from reports
since most Western news agencies - Reuters, Associated Press, AFP
(Agence France-Presse), etc. - focus their reporting on disputes
among the bigger players.
Getting answers requires reading, research and talking to
sources. But they are not at our fingertips. One can scroll the
Internet for data or do a "Google" search, but the most current
information may not be there. Also, not many journalists in the
South have access to the Internet. When they do, it is
frustratingly slow.
The other problem is that material from many NGOs and think
tanks can be confusing. Getting to know which think tank is liberal
or conservative is a nightmare. Most are based in the North. Each
one feeds you with its research - showcasing the organization as
right. How are we to judge which information is most relevant?
Our job is not to ignore any group perceived to have a
significant interest in an issue. But getting in touch with all of
them - government officials, politicians, business representatives,
trade lawyers, trade associations and NGOs - to obtain a comment is
a Herculean task.
Build relationships
For example, there is little information flow and a total lack
of synergy between public or private trade promotion bodies and
newsrooms. This has led to poor coverage of trade and trade policy
issues. We face the handicap of lack of current data on imports and
exports or trends in business. Journalists could play a major role
in helping business sectors break into new markets, but we are not
consulted enough. So the coverage is usually disjointed, rambling
and at times stale.
Governments, too, have been unwilling to share information about
their negotiating positions, treating it as top secret.
One of the major challenges that I had to overcome at a personal
level was to gain the confidence of the Kenyan officials whom I
met, not in Kenya, but at international meetings. If we had not met
there and shared drinks, maybe they would not have opened up to me
in Nairobi.
What to do about this? There is an urgent need to train a pool
of African journalists to exclusively follow globalization stories
from an informed perspective. What we have now are general
practitioners thrown into a surgery ward, each trying his or her
best in a catastrophic situation.
Training should also target rural newspaper bureaux. Most
stories come from rural areas and that is where about 70% of
Africans live.
How do we change the agenda? We must localize the stories by
giving them a human face. But that can only be done by increasing
capacity within newsrooms, which are handicapped already.
Finally, should we take sides as Southern journalists or should
we just report?
Ordinarily, journalists are not supposed to take sides…
otherwise they are accused of playing ball with NGOs or being on
their payroll. But ignoring crucial debates is much more harmful.
It is better to take sides and trigger a debate rather than stay on
the fence and produce boredom.
For us in the South, poverty is real. Trade talks are not about
statistics. They are about people, living, walking and surviving.
It is these people we have to report on and, in turn, tell them
what is happening in the world they do not know. That is our role
as the media in the South.
John Kamau (jkamau@nation.co.ke)
is Associate Editor of the Nation Media Group, based in Nairobi,
Kenya.