July 31, 2008...9:56 pm

Taking A Stand

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I have spent this afternoon registering my disappointment in the Associated Press. There was a story on CNN.com re: the increase in child prostitution since the post-election violence in Kenya last January. There were names, pictures etc on the site that did little to protect the identities of the victims of violence and exploitation. The letters I wrote came from deep inside. These girls have already been victims to the men who have sex with them…why would the Associated Press add to their exploitation by displaying an image of a girl in such a situation?

I was not impressed! Particularly because a previous, similar story focusing on Child Prostitution in N. America ensured that the faces of the American victims were obscured and un-identifiable…hopefully my 1 letter changes how stories of female exploitation in Africa are told in the Western media.

This evening, a friend told me of how she attended a workshop on making documentaries where people talked of there being no need to get signed waivers from African subjects as they were unlikely to view the documentary therefore they were unlikely to sue!!!!

Take a Stand!

The story on CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/07/31/kenya.prostitution.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

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7 Comments

  • 31337
    August 1, 2008 at 3:13 am

    a sad case of double standards.

    Reply
  • petesmama
    August 1, 2008 at 6:11 am

    Well, thank you for making a stand. That is some bullshit.

    Reply
  • Kenyanpundit
    August 1, 2008 at 6:41 am

    Do you have the link?

    Reply
  • Cynthia
    August 1, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    Read that too — and I was furious!!! But sadly, there are also some of us who actually think and feel that kind of reporting is ” informative”! How?

    Reply
  • egm
    August 6, 2008 at 2:23 am

    I applaud you for taking a stand. That is just unnacceptable on CNN’s part! And that mentality of not being sued, therefore being able to use the pictures wily nily is just warped!

    Reply
  • Wambui
    August 7, 2008 at 7:15 am

    I haven’t heard from AP or CNN (I’ve written to publications regarding correction of facts or spellings etc and they usually reply quite promptly). I am tired of the sensationalism and lack of sensitivity towards African subjects. These stories can be told just as well without pictures or at the least, with respectful pictures. When I see pictures of African ‘victims of war/hunger/disease’ at their most vulnerable, I have to wonder how it helps improve the story to have that picture. If anything it just reinforces stereotypes and eventually makes people hardened to the images. They say that the pictures spur people to action or paint a better picture of the situation. You can imagine the outcry that would follow the publication of a N. American child abuse victim’s picture. We can agree that many people here can’t begin to imagine what abuse looks like- but they sure wouldn’t need a picture to believe the horrors that adults inflict on children!

    Reply
  • egm
    August 7, 2008 at 7:51 am

    There was a big debate about the New York Times article about Nairobi being the next Palo Alto. The picture accompanying that article was of a Maasai man walking past a kiosk displaying mobile phones. The big question asked was, what value did that picture add to the story? Wouldn’t a picture showing one of the people talked about in the interview at a computer in an office have carried more weight?

    International media are a big joke when it comes to such matters!

    Reply

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