By Ian Ortega
Ugandan Journalists. I have noticed this for too long and it breaks my heart. I attend conference after conference, event after event and there’s always one constant. Journalists lining up to receive their “facilitation” from organizers, pleading, trying to prove that they deserve that facilitation.
I know for a fact that journalists in Uganda are some of the least paid professionals. There’s no doubt about that. But they lack something, it’s called having a little pride. A little pride is what makes the difference sometimes. A little pride to say that here’s the line, I won’t cross that line for money, no matter what. Or perhaps a little shame to say, here’s what I can’t do for money.
Many times after the event, the journalists will line up and the organizers will torture them with questions and accusations. “Are you even a journalist? Which media house do your represent? Where’s proof? Did we even invite you?”
This goes on for minutes until the organizers take out the money and hand it over to the journalist who will now walk away happy. Sometimes that facilitation could go as low as 10,000.
Of course when I worked as a young journalist, I didn’t know about facilitation. After an event, I would walk away and go write the story. After all, the media house always refunded the transport. It’s my colleagues who would come and hand me money saying this is your share from this and this event. I signed it on your behalf. It still didn’t make sense to me.
The more you plead for that facilitation, the more they continue to undervalue your work as a journalist.
When I started doing video reviews from Sqoop, artistes would always ask me to review their songs and some even offered to give some thing in appreciation. I made it clear that I didn’t review videos based on rewards. I review videos based on what’s appropriate for that week. I wasn’t doing this for the money, there was a higher cause. As a result, I am able to write objectively and independently, bash any video or praise it.
What’s the bottom line? Until journalists in Uganda gain a little pride, that small grain of shame, everyone will continue treating them as the lowliest of society despite the fact that they’re the fourth estate. After Parliament, Executive and Judiciary, the journalists come next.
See if you’re given facilitation by anyone, at that moment, you become their slave. You now have to write a story that only reflects well on them. They literally have you by the neck and it’s not a good thing when writing a story.
Or perhaps, I didn’t have a family to feed during my short stint, and so I could disregard the facilitation. I don’t know. But one thing for sure, I would have never knelt down to plead for facilitation or Per diem!!!!
