Journalists deserve good pay, speaker Muturi tell media owners

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has asked media owners to decently pay adding that scribes deserve better remuneration owing to their sensitive nature of work  including risking their lives.

Speaking at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi during the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day, good pay will restore integrity in the profession.

“Today is my day to ask the media owners in this country to pay our children, their reporters and news crew very well. Pay them well first and then demand integrity, otherwise we risk making them captives of Government and news sources,” Muturi said.

The speaker noted that free and independent media, spreading accurate and factual information is the cornerstone of a vibrant democracy and national development.

“We have to find ways to let journalists, editors and media owners understand that their role is so important to a cohesive, united, and prosperous country,” he said.

Further, he said that the National Assembly has adopted and continues to strive to ensure that journalists have access to useful and important information from most committee sittings, including videos, audio, minutes of the meetings, and reports at this time of Covid-19.

He called onto the Fourth Estate to hold all the civil servants in the public officials accountable on behalf of the people.

“As the Fourth Estate, you need to hold all of us in public office accountable on behalf of the people. You tell us whenever you think we are betraying the country; you celebrate us when we do something great, and you also set the agenda for us,” he said.

“If we go rogue and pass illegal laws, any Kenyan can take us to court and have those laws annulled. But what happens if the media goes rogue? That becomes tricky. Because when it comes to the media, it matters who assigns that label.”

On ethics, Muturi has urged journalists and editors to use all the legal and ethical means to obtain information held by the government and about the government.

He also said that training on media law, standards, ethics, integrity, media literacy, and even the craft of journalism has been helpful in professionalising the media industry in Kenya.

World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom.

It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.

This year’s World Press Freedom Day theme “Information as a Public Good” serves as a call to affirm the importance of cherishing information as a public good, and exploring what can be done in the production, distribution and reception of content to strengthen journalism, and to advance transparency and empowerment while leaving no one behind.