Nairobi — A documentary launched to celebrate the World Press Freedom Day last week reveals the pain experienced by unsung heroes in the media.

Produced by strikingly unassuming photojournalist Khamis Ramadhan, the documentary titled, Uncovering the Media- Kenya, was hailed as a remarkable biography of media in Kenya.

The documentary, which is available on CD from Community images, brings out the big questions on women in the media and the deprivation of local content as Kenyans are assailed by soaps and other features from the North and South.

Essential issues for development of media and unresolved legal issues that keep journalists checked as the fourth estate are addressed in the documentary.

Bantu Mwaura, a lecturer and poet interviewed in the documentary decries alienation of a section of journalists by media houses.

The documentary reveals what photojournalists do not get for all their good work.

Ramadhan is more than self effacing, believing that images will speak if they are allowed to. Followed up for this interview at his office, it was hard to get the man to talk about himself.

All his family - wife Mariam and teenage daughter Rahma and son Ruhullah - sat in the office doing different things but playing an active role in general discussion.

I had to ask if this has got anything to do with one not praising themselves as a religious tenet and Mariam seemed to agree.

Ramadhan is a good example of those journalists who put their life on the line in what is becoming the tradition started by the great Mo Amin.

The list includes Yusuf Wachira, Yahya Mohammed and Noor Khamis.

Some of the photojournalists have passed on but not leaving us, like Mo, because of their indelible images.

The late Hos Maina, soundman Antony Macharia, Dan Eldon and Wallace Gichere suffered and died in the line of duty - the latter as an unforgettable icon of the struggle Kenya has had for media freedom.

But Ramadhan's vision in life - "it is better to die on our feet than to live on our knees," words of Kenya's foremost freedom fighter Dedan Kimathi - reveals that there are photojournalists with a mission deep and sacred. These words emblazoned on a wall hanging greet you as you sit down in his office.

Prof Edwin Nyutho, a lecturer at University of Nairobi's School of Journalism, said that photojournalists discover and use their passion, not just brain, early in life.

The don explained to young Kenyans, who are losing out on knowing their heroes since they are not feted locally, how Mo shook the whole world with his images of ravaging famine in Ethiopia. Mo later died in a plane crash on his way from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1996.

Photojournalists, just like Ramadhan, have contributed a lot without expecting accolades and honours although they deserve recognition. And, like a number of self-taught photojournalists and cartoonists, he holds two awards - one received in 2003 and the other in 2004 for his work.

Higher goal

Indeed, Mariam is right. Ramadhan appears to be at the service of some higher goal and patiently immolating his talent for the good of the society.

Ramadhan nearly escaped recognition in the hall where his documentary was launched, were it not for the intervention of the master of ceremonies, writer and dramatist John Sibi Okumu. The MC drew the attention of the audience by calling not just Ramadhan but also all those who took part in the making of the documentary for introduction.

The fast-paced and well choreographed moving documentary that runs 31 minutes and 30 seconds, about media persons baring themselves, begins with a touching account from local photojournalists.

The whole documentary becomes one big picture which, if you agree one photograph can be worth a thousand words, becomes infinitely valuable.

A caption - Wallace Gichere died a few weeks after the completion of this documentary - flashes below Gichere's photograph on his deathbed, explaining his tragedy.

Got paralysed

Gichere is interviewed extensively in the documentary which he did not live to watch. He is the photojournalist who was thrown from the fourth floor of his Buru Buru flat by security forces and got paralysed waist down.

Finally awarded money for damages, what will linger forever in his now silent mind and on our pricked societal conscience is the man's pain and struggle to break the silence on his plight when the money awarded for damages was not forthcoming.

Indeed, he died fighting for compensation and he had to stage a hunger strike before he could get the damages awarded him paid. The images in the documentary will remain with you; the same way photojournalists images of pain, death and suffering remain with them perpetually.

Stephen Mudiari's call for counselling for journalists is not misplaced. One is touched, for one by one - from Liz Gichuki, who tells of her beatings by City Council askaris to Jacob Otieno, whose pain is so alive as every nerve of his face - will leave you in tears.

Otieno broke down during the interview as he recalled the photos he took at an accident scene 10 years ago.

Rebecca Nduku describes the pain a mother feels taking a photo of a hungry child out there, how journalists go unnoticed in the society sometimes much in the same way as the hungry and silent child - voiceless and surrounded by cold stones and an empty bowl.

You ask many questions as Robert Gicheru narrates long moments in the gutter after a bullet skimmed his forehead. You see the dark days, he says, and still the darkness remains.

To the present photojournalists who have done amazing work, they remain in background as others reap the gains of their work.

In one of such cases, Baraka Karama brought Barack Obama's Kenyan connections to the limelight through his works but was shunted aside when the Illinois senator became known for who he is, with a local media house claiming the discovery.

One of misery

The history of photojournalists, just as that of correspondents, as Oloo Janak of the Correspondents Association says in the documentary, has been one of misery thus far.

Beyond that, the documentary also raises all the fundamental questions facing our media today.

From poor pay to lack of transport, making reporters ready recipients of transport money from politicians and NGOs, which makes them vulnerable to manipulation.

Why should we tolerate a colonial prescription for the execution of a million shillings bond, came the well needed indictment of the law by David Matende. He queries too the unjust Freedom of Information which still protects Government secrets.

Indeed, Mburu Muchoki bore the brunt of this law last year as he languished in jail. Just why have we allowed the imprisonment of the entire alternative media calling it gutter press?

Freedom abuse

Just how do such bonds leave room for people to create themselves jobs in the media and be free to express themselves without watching over their shoulders? Isn't this already an abuse of freedom in a poor developing country? The questions shot from every corner in the debate that ensued after the show.

Why does Kenya, go so much for profit-driven media neglecting community FM radios which could educate the society out of poverty? Grace Githaiga, a community media trainer asks.

Women in the documentary speak of sexual exploitation albeit shyly; one of them charmingly winks to say yes, there is sexual harassment and sexual promotions! The wink calls for stronger voices on issues.

But watch that space, Khamis is not done with the screen and other issues ranging from elections, violence and the legal issues that had Gichere on the cross for so long.