Many seasoned aid workers tell stories to each other that would make the hair of the donor public stand on end.
Just this week I’ve been made aware, privately, and by angry people, of a novel method of growing food in hungry Turkana that isn’t getting any official government support, the looting of the equivalent of 40 truck loads of grain in Mogadishu port – it’s now in private warehouses – and an intolerable delay unloading a ship full of relief grain in Mombasa. That grain was harvested and bagged in America ten months ago and won’t reach beneficiaries for another two months. That’s a full year from the day it was harvested.
I believe this information to be true. Each example, and there are many, many more, has News Story written all over it.
But my sources won’t be identified by title, organization or name. They are too worried to tell the media what they know because they fear their disclosure will a) compromise their organisation b) impede its work and harm beneficiaries and c) get them fired.
And all three fears are probably founded, especially if the information can be traced back to them or their organization.
So what to do when you know that something is going on that deserves to be in the public domain but you don’t want to be identified as the source?
First and foremost, you need someone in the media that you can trust, and you get that from dealing with the media in the past and seeing them as a potential ally or honest broker.
If you trust a journalist, then a story can be run quoting “aid sources” or “port sources” or “sources close to the relief operation.”
You can agree on a formulation with the journalist. And it’s the journalist’s job to check the information as well as it can be checked, and, if possible, to get official comment on it.
Often journalists will ring up a government spokesman to get comment on such stories because it allows the media to “lead with the denial” , as it is called, but carry the information in the story all the same.
Such as in:
A Kenyan government spokesman denied there were any delays in handling grain destined for the emergency in the horn of Africa, where 13 million people face starvation.
“I am not aware of any delays. The port is operating normally,” a government spokesman said.
He was commenting on reports by aid sources that a ship full of relief grain, the MV Feedtheworld, had been docked in Mombasa for two months with an undischarged cargo of American PL480 relief wheat.
The sources said the grain was harvested and bagged in America in October 2010 and shipped from Louisiana in March this year, arriving in Mombasa in early July.
But it was still waiting to be unloaded on Friday, the sources said. The reason was not clear but it appeared to be a dispute between the port authority and dock workers.
Risky? Maybe, but there are so many sources that could have been the origin of this information that you are likely to be protected.
The result: the story is out there, the public will want to know why and, with a little luck, the grain will start moving to those in need.
Andy Hill, MediaTrain Nairobi
