Politicians are mostly to blame for ‘brown envelope’ syndrome

Last week, I was investigating a case in which the complainant claimed a journalist was bribed to write negative stories about her.

Her business rivals, she said, wanted to spoil her character and business, so they hired the journalist.

Such accusations of “brown envelope” journalism are often made. And the accused journalists are often seen, falsely or rightly, as people whose souls are for sale.

Brown envelope is a euphemism for a bribe — often notes of Sh1,000 stacked in an envelope (which can also be white).

The story that is rarely, if ever, told is that the brown envelope givers are the real problem. Journalists rarely ask for or demand bribes; they are simply given.

Of course, giving out brown envelopes without being asked does not make it any less of a bribe.

But journalists are not like the bribe-demanding traffic police who take to the road to extract or extort bribes.

Cops routinely stop matatus, or stand at the right places where a motorist could make the wrong turn.

They carry out Alcoblow tests at strategic places and in the right hours of the night. They do all this not for the sake of maintaining law and order, but so they can extract or extort a bribe.

That is the moral difference between bribe-seeking cops and bribe-receiving journalists.

On the whole, journalists go out to do their work, to inform the public, without a thought of receiving a bribe crossing their mind.

But in the process of their work, they are tempted and seduced to receive brown envelopes. The tempters and seducers are mainly politicians, corporate and NGO types.

And therein lies the problem. Although in some cases there could be some expectation of a brown envelope, journalists on the whole are offered brown envelops without asking for them.

In fact, in such cases there is no talk of a bribe. The brown envelope is for “facilitation”, “lunch” or “transport”.

And that makes it easier to accept what is in fact a bribe to induce them to be friendly in their reportage to the envelope giver.

Brown envelope journalism can be eliminated. But the public must change their attitude towards journalists.

The other day, I was embarrassed when as a member of a community project, I sat in a meeting planning an event.

The planning committee reported that there was a Sh10,000 provision in the budget for journalists invited to cover the event. I asked why the journalists needed to be paid.

“It is just the way it’s done. If you want to ensure you are covered, you must have an envelope for journalists,” the chairperson said.

I said journalists can do their job without being given brown envelopes. But my plea went unheeded. The budget was retained.

It is unfortunate that there is this mistaken belief among politicians, corporates and NGOs in particular that they can only be covered properly if they ‘facilitate’ (bribe) journalists. This is the worst misconception of what journalism is all about.

Journalism is not for sale. But some politicians, corporates and NGO types seem to think otherwise. This is the problem.