Standard Group lauded for taking lead in sexual reproduction and health rights coverage

The Standard newspaper has been lauded for advancing Sexual Reproduction and Health Rights (SRHR) issues.

In a report released by the Kenya Human Rights Commission, the newspaper owned by The Standard Group PLC had published 60 stories out of the 524 cases analysed for nine months between October 2023 and June 2024.

 Dubbed ‘Who Shapes the Narrative?' Media Coverage Analysis of SRHR, the report by Globetrack covered all 47 counties offering a national breakdown of how SRHR-related issues were covered.

The report, which was released in Naivasha during a one-day training for journalists and editors who cover and edit gender stories organised by KHRC, Resolve Communications and Kenya Editors Guild (KEG).

The KHRC contracted Globetrack, which monitored 524 media coverage on SRHR on local media houses.

The analysis covered all the 47 counties, offering a regional breakdown of SRHR issues covered.

The research questions included what framing techniques are employed in media reporting of SRHR issues in Kenya, regional distribution of SRHR-related coverage and who are the key voices influencing SHRH narratives in the media?

Issues analysed included teenage pregnancies, Comprehensive Sexual Education (CSE), abortion, contraceptives, HIV/AIDS and rape.

Others were Sexual Transmitted Infections(STIs), Gender-Based Violence(GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation(FGM).

The Standard was followed by The Star at 59 stories, Daily Nation (57) and People Daily with 38 stories.

Under the TV platform, TV47 took the lead at 32 stories followed by KTN with 16 stories, Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) with 12 stories, K24 and Citizen with 10 stories each and NTV with 9.

With regards to online coverage, the Star publication took the lead with 23 articles, followed by Nation. Africa with 14 and Standard Digital, KBC Digital tied at five stories each.

North Rift Radio took position one with 15 stories under the radio category followed by Radio Citizen, Milele FM, KBC Radio Taifa and KBC English Service all with seven stories in the top five. Radio Maisha, Standard Group's sister radio station, had three stories.

Speaking during the training Standard Group’s Operations Editor Andrew Kagwa attributed the win to the convergence model of journalism the group has among other reasons.

“The convergence gave opportunity to journalists to collect news in all our platforms including TV, print, radio and online, unlike before when they had had specialisation of platforms, thus making coverage of the SRHR wider,” said Kagwa.

He said, “The Standard Group also entered into several partnerships including with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in May 2021 to champion the rights of children in Kenya and with UN Women in 2020 to champion the gender agenda in the media industry.”

Kagwa also appreciated individual efforts by journalists to cover gender-related issues using Health and Science magazine that is published every Monday.

“When we go to the planning of content, we ensure all thematic desks are represented. From there, we can know which stories we need to carry across our media platforms,” he said.

Homa Bay, Nairobi, Kakamega, Kiambu and Machakos had the highest mentions of stories scoring 21, 16, 16 13 and 10 respectively, contributing to total of 330 mentions across the four media platforms of TV, radio, print and online. Embu, Isiolo, Kitui, Murang’a and Taita Taveta took the least mentions of one each.

In 2024, KHRC analysed data from the Kenya Demographic Health Survey(KDHS) 2022 report and identified the top 10 counties with high teenage pregnancies among adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 years.

The top six counties identified are Nairobi, Kakamega, Bungoma, Nakuru, Kiambu and Kilifi.

“The data in this report directly implicates the same counties in other SRHR cases covered for the period,” said the KHRC report.

From October 2023 to February 2024, the coverage was consistent probably due to 16 Days of Activism which runs from November 25 to December 10 and increased from March due to the celebration of International Women’s Day which is celebrated in March, which sparked a wave of sustained SRHR-related activities and media attention in the following months.

“Overall coverage of SRHR increased significantly in the second half of the coverage period. Radio and TV coverage, although marking the least among the four selected channels, have seen consistent growth patterns over the period ending June 2024,” said the report.

The report revealed that media reporting on SHRH tends to be reactive and lacks investigative depth.

“Coverage is often driven by official campaigns or external events, with little exploration of the systemic social and economic factors underpinning SRHR issues. This calls for more proactive, investigative journalism highlighting the real-life impacts of human rights violations linked to SHRH,” it said.

Among the SHRH issues, teenage pregnancies remain a significant concern that requires close monitoring by relevant authorities and key stakeholders.

For instance, a 2023 report by Open Institute (Open Institute, 2024) on Kilifi County revealed that 4,091 school-going girls aged 10 to 18 years became pregnant in the first six months of 2023.

Poverty, lack of education and harmful community practices such as early marriages are contributing factors.

Comprehensive Sexual Education was second with media coverage of 91 mentions, followed by abortion (43) and contraceptives (51).

“Journalists play an integral role in ensuring that there is justice for victims and survivors of sexual reproductive violations and therefore we are urging them to keep elected leaders accountable because they have the mandate to ensure that the high cases of for instance unintended teenage pregnancies are reduced,” said Ernest Cornel, Communications Officer at KHRC. 

He added: “At the same time we are demanding access to information, services and justice for every child who faces SRHR-unrelated violations.”

On framing, social responsibility scored high at 51.3 per cent, followed by human rights at 33.6 per cent, then legal and judicial at 6.5 per cent, unclassified at 5.3 per cent and finally personal and emotional at 2.1 per cent.

The report mentions religious, and political figures and government officials, legal and judicial bodies, human rights organisations, health professionals and educators as shapers of SRHR narratives.

The report in its recommendation, calls for media houses to organise specialised training to journalists on how to cover these issues comprehensively and empower them to serve as community advocates and thus foster a better public understanding and advocacy.

The report also calls upon human rights organisations, to leverage on media to impact more and drive action, prioritise the resolution of SRHR-related cases to avoid delayed justice on part of legal and judicial bodies and government officials and religious leaders to ensure that their public statements regarding SHRH are informed by factual, evidence-based information.