Kwamboka Oyaro

Reporting Children in Kenya's Media: How the Kenyan Media Reported Three High Profile Cases Touching on Children Kwamboka Oyaro

In news coverage of children in the media in Kenya, I noticed serious infringement of the children?s rights, especially when it came to negative news. There were cases where defilement of children was reported unprofessionally where the child?s face was blurred but the clothes and the mother?s name and face were clearly used on television in particular. Many victims of defilement are usually from poor families and items such as clothing will obviously identify them. This was disturbing. As a features writer at the time with Kenya?s largest news organization, the Nationa Media Group, I had taken a keen interest in reporting children and as such had trained a lot on the subject. So this kind of reporting was disturbing and I was persuaded to do something to address the issue. So my Masters research picked three cases of reporting children where the children?s rights were abused by the media. My research exposed me to the rampant abuse of children?s rights and it was clear that media professionals need to be seriously trained on the best practices of covering children in the media.