User talk:Rayleighlee0801/sandbox

Manuel Balan Review

This is off to a good start. I agree with the comments from both Shannon and Evan. Also, try to include more academic sources, and make sure that your tone is as objective as possible. Keep up the good work and continue digging deeper.

Final draft: Wikipedia project

Brown envelope journalism (BEJ) is a practice whereby monetary inducement is given to journalists for favorable media coverage. BEJ can incentivize journalists to write a story in favor of the briber or to suppress stories to have them go unreported. The name is derived from cash inducements hidden in brown envelopes and given to journalists, usually during press briefings in anticipation of upcoming coverage. Press briefings, or news conferences, are events organized for the purpose of distributing information to the media and answering questions from reporters. While such formal settings offer Public Relations or Media managers channels to access journalists, BEJ bribes can occur in different forms by a variety of actors.

BEJ is a colloquial expression most commonly used to describe instances of bribery and hush money in Sub-Saharan Africa, whereas the expression “red envelope journalism” has been used to describe similar practices in China. Among media commentators, the term is commonly used to describe corrupt journalistic practices in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Nigeria. While it is difficult to locate exactly when BEJ practices began to be associated with Nigerian journalism, the Nigerian press gained international coverage for BEJ in 2015, notably from mainstream sources such as BBC news and Al Jazeera.

While the extent to which BEJ practices are implemented worldwide is unknown, research literature has been concentrated in the South East and Asia and Eastern Europe regions, as well as Latin American and African regions in recent years. Recent academic publication on BEJ in Sub-saharan African countries include a peer-reviewed journal commissioned by the African Communication Research, based on 40 submissions from South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ethiopia.

Origins

Theories regarding the origins of "brown envelope" differ by region and author.

According to a report published by Derek Forbes, the term was first coined in the United Kingdom (UK) the after a political scandal in the 1990s. The "cash-for-questions-affair" incident, covered by Jonathan Hunt of the Guardian October 1994, reported that lobbyists had paid Members of Parliament to ask a specific question in the House of Commons. The Guardian alleged that the bribes were made in behalf of the owner of the Harrods department store, Mohammed Al Fayed, using brown colored envelopes, hence the rationale for the term.

Alternatively, Edmund O Bamiro, states that the term was a euphemism originating from journalism practices in Nigeria to discreetly enclose bribes in envelopes. While BEJ is associated with corruption, Nwabueze argues BEJ was originally rooted in the culture of presenting kolanuts to visitors as hospitality practice in Nigerian society.

Practice

Nigeria

BEJ is regarded as a common practice in Nigeria. The early standing of Nigerian journalism took place during the struggle for independence from British colonialists, before the inauguration of the Nigerian nation. One of the results of this has been the lack of laws regulating the industry, prompting the Nigerian media has become a thriving arena for sponsored stories. Prior to the 1990s, most news publications were government owned. BEJ was a prominent practice among Nigerian press during the Second Republic (1979-83), where ministers bribed journalists for media coverage, resulting in underpaid journalists demanding brown envelopes as a precondition for conducting interviews.

Journalists in Nigeria perceive BEJ practice to be unethical, and media regulatory bodies such as The Nigerian Union of Journalist (NUJ) apply a code of ethics to discourage the practice. While the code of ethics is meant to define standards expected of the media in their reporting, the extent to which journalists adhere to the codes is difficult to measure, as they are not legally binding.

BEJ practices in Nigeria received coverage from BBC news and Aljazeera after the Premium Times reported on a lawsuit against This Day, a Nigerian national newspaper. Paul Ibe, a former editor of This Day, was awarded more than $5000 in damages for outstanding entitlements by the Abuja court. The court victory was only reported by one newspaper in Nigeria, despite being covered by international newsrooms. Coverage around Ibe’s case highlighted the prevalence of insufficient remuneration for Nigerian journalists. According to sources interviewed by the BBC, non-payment of salaries are often justified with opportunities to exploit BEJ practices.

Kenya

Kenyan journalists call brown envelope journalism “dawa,” a Swahili word for “medicine." Rachlin suggests that the prevalence of unethical journalism can be explained by the normalization of corruption within society, as well as journalistic practices. Other scholars suggest the context of political history, structure, and culture leads to a mental state in which corruption forms. Kenyan politicians are ranked as the top source of the ‘envelope,’ where politicians foster close relationships with journalists and become potential news sources.

Kenya’s journalists have been accused of complicity in inciting ethnic violence in 2007, after the controversial re-election of Mwai Kibaki. Kibaki’s rival, Raila Odinga contested election results by claiming he was rigged out. However, this was sparsely covered by the Kenyan media, and the government suspended television coverage.The post-election violence ended with 1500 deaths, and more than half a million internally displaced.

Following the December 2007 elections, the voluntary regulatory body was replaced by the official Media Council of Kenya in 2007. Rules of journalistic conduct were introduced in Kenya’s legislation with the Kenyan Media Act in 2007. While article three states that BEJ is not allowed as journalists must not “accept gifts, favours or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage,” media houses are not legally bound to follow the regulations. The new referendum held August 2010 for a new constitution promised a different media regulation system.

The National Anti-Corruption Plan of 2011 introduced measures to address journalistic corruption in Kenya, such as improved remuneration for journalists, enforcement of a journalistic code of ethics, anti-corruption education, and training, as well as providing journalists with adequate resources. However, government influence over journalism was once again criticised in following elections in 2013 and 2016.

At the same time, investigative journalism in Kenya saw an unraveling of massive scandals in the government, where the Kenyan journalists were able to create sufficient pressure to force government officials to resign.

Ghana

The word used for brown envelope journalism in Ghana is termed ‘soli,’ derived from the word 'solidarity.’ Soli indicates sympathy towards a journalist’s difficult situation, and willingness to provide aid to strengthen the ties between the two parties.

According to Kasoma, BEJ practices are commonplace in Ghana, despite journalists’ reservations on the practice and impact on objectivity. The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) ranked the Ghana media as one of the most corrupt institutions in the country. A study found that over four out of every five journalists in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, accept the brown envelope. While soli is often in the form of money, cars and even scholarships, it can take other forms such as taxi fares and meals.

In terms of how journalists see the practice of the brown envelope, almost three out of every four journalists claim that they do not see anything wrong with taking brown envelops or soli from news sources. In a study by Global Media Journal, over 50% of the respondents surveyed said that soli do not influence ethical journalistic practice while others claimed that Soli could influence news reportage and by extension, ethical journalistic practice. However, the editors, senior journalists and media house managers interviewed believed that soli usually negatively influences journalistic practices.

In another study, 74 percent of journalists surveyed admitted to accepting brown envelopes; although 76.5 percent of respondents claimed to have reported the truth after soli, 23.5 percent of respondents admitted that the acceptance of soli led them to not report the truth.

Forms

BEJ transactions can occur in three different forms, outlined by Kruckeberg and Tsetsura’s research report on journalistic corruption; interpersonal, intraorganizational, and interorganizational. Interpersonal refers to the cash handed directly to journalists by a news source, whereas intraorganizational refers to an editor applying internal pressure to journalists in the same organization. This may prompt the journalist to take a particular angle or to adopt a certain tone. Interorganizational refers to formal arrangements or legal contracts established between a company and a publication which oblige the newsroom to publish a certain number of articles. However, formal contracts involve an implicit understanding that the anticipated coverage falls favorably to the payer.

• Public relations (PR) – The practice of brown envelope journalism is sometimes described as PR or public relations. PR involves paying in advance for a newsworthy event to be reported by journalists.

• Token of appreciation or for transport – refers to monetary inducement given to journalists to gain undue favor under the guise that the bribe giver appreciates the time and mileage the journalist spent on a story.

• Kola – kola, a tropical tree grown in the African region, is commonly used to referencing brown envelopes

Causes

One possible cause of BEJ is the poor remuneration of journalists. While remuneration is cited as the most common explanation for BEJ in news articles, the extent to which poor pay impacts journalistic practices are unclear, and differ by region.

In Nigeria, journalists' salaries are not paid on time, and bosses sometimes justify this non-payment by telling their employees to use the media platform to earn money. There are instances whereby magazines owe employees six months’ salary, even when paid, many journalists still earn less than $3 per day, while graduate journalists earn as little as $200 monthly. According to a report published in 2016 indicates the estimated living wage in Lagos State is within NGN 58,500 to NGN 87,900 for a typical family, which is around $160 to $240 US. In 2015, the Nigeria Union of Journalists protested against ThisDay newspapers after salary payments were delayed for nine months.

However, Ekeanyanwau and Obianigwe’s survey study of Nigerian journalists conducted in 2009 revealed that only 34% agreed that an increase in salary would curb BEJ. A 2013 survey study of journalists' perception on the causes of BEJ practices in Nigeria indicates that 6% of journalists interview associate poor remuneration as a cause of BEJ, while 2% indicated delay in salary payments.

In a survey in Ghana, 60.5 percent of respondents indicated poor pay for BEJ; of which 16.5 percent claimed inadequate resources for work as the reason while 23 percent claimed poor monitoring of journalists by the media outlet led to the acceptance of brown envelopes. Other studies found that the working conditions of journalists in Ghana is poor, as a third of the respondents stated that they are not paid salaries,, and the media houses do not provide any means of transportation for the coverage of events, which may cause journalists to be vulnerable and receptive to soli.

However, the overwhelming (83%) acceptance of brown envelopes despite the fact that most of the surveyed journalists are highly educated and members of the Ghana Journalists Association suggest that accepting brown envelopes may be part of journalism culture. This practice has become a normalized journalism practice in Ghana, as journalists often expect to be rewarded after covering an event, and even heckle their sources for brown envelopes when they are denied. This expanding notion of brown envelopes as a right even normalizes it as a journalism convention instead of as a condemnable act.

Comparative studies in Kenya also indicate societal acceptance of BEJ among journalists as a contributing factor to BEJ. A 2011 study of journalists revealed corruption to be a common practice, as 78.4% of the respondents perceived corruption as a common practice; wherein 44.3% said corruption was “very widespread,” ranging from small sums of money to influence journalists to large bribes for specific stories”. Bribes were accepted as a normal practice even among well-paid journalists. However, the same study illustrates a possible link between economic circumstances and ethical behavior, as Kenya’s relative tolerance to BEJ compared to their counterparts in South Africa can be explained by a difference in the profitability of media organizations. South African newsrooms enjoy more profitable outcomes, hence are better remunerated, which may account for the difference in acceptability of bribes.

Cross-national studies on remuneration and BEJ demonstrate scattered results. According to a study by Kasoma’s in 2007, low salary levels were correlated with acceptance of brown envelopes among Ghanaian and Zambian journalists. However, other surveys indicate that raising salaries do not necessarily eradicate hidden monetary supplements.

Another cause of BEJ may be the indirect influence of advertisers on the financial performance of media houses. Due to the revenues that accrue to media firms through advertisements, the media houses are well aware of the interest of advertisers and consider those interests in the packaging of sensitive news.

Effects

Widespread BEJ practices may cause a shift in journalism from being a fourth estate to a publicity seeking outlet available to the highest bidder, resulting in the commercialization of news. The fourth estate describes journalists’ role in representing public interests as opposed to political and business elites.

Development literature describes BEJ practices as an opposite to development reporting (DR) or the reporting of social and economic development related issues. The extent to which media sources adopt DR is measured by the media’s ability to provide a platform for citizens, to report on corruption, to set the public agenda, and provide functional education in literacy at the grassroots level. The Global Media Journal attributes the underreporting of malaria in Ghana despite its prevalence to the lack of monetary incentives for newsrooms in reporting such topics.

While there is no clear type of organization with a specific focus on countering BEJ thus far, media ethics groups have proposed recommendations to address BEJ. The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) commissioned a report in 2010, addressing corrupt journalistic practices around the world, including BEJ practices in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report emphasized cooperation between newsrooms, non-governmental organizations (NGO) as well as public relations offices. Other suggestions include publicizing journalists’ salaries, zero tolerance policies administered by editors, and increased ethics training.

See also

• Corruption in Nigeria
• Media of Nigeria