Former Standard Group Editorial Director, Joseph Odindo revealed that the Chinese Government cancelled advertisements and withdrew funding after the group through its different publications exposed human rights issues and corruption during construction of the Standard Gauge Railway.
Speaking at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, the former director explained that the media house received an email from the Chinese Embassy cancelling all the advertisements soon after the story surfaced.
“The Chinese Embassy and their communications manager cancelled all their advertisements with us. They demanded that we had to stop negative coverage," revealed Odindo.
He also explained that this brought an end to a biweekly supplement from the Chinese government that helped support the media stable.
The investigative piece in question was published five years ago and exposed claims of racism, harassment and killing of wild animals during the construction of Kenya’s SGR.
Other than the pulling out of advertisements from the Standard Group, the journalist who ran the story alleged receiving threats from influential parties.
Notably, the report hinted that the Chinese Government was enforcing a strategy that aimed to maintain only positive reporting on its projects within Africa.
More details of the report reveal that to further this agenda, the Chinese government had also funded journalists' training and trips to study in China.
“We had to draw up a chart which would enable us to see who was out on a Chinese training at any given time, who was due to come back, and who was next—otherwise you could find half of your newsroom is in Beijing undergoing training,” explained Odindo.
According to data from the report, more than 500 journalists and local employees are employed by the Chinese putting out an average of 1,800 stories a month.
It is argued that this aims to influence the angles through which stories are told about the Asian nation.
However, some journalists have opined that the significant number of journalists in the Chinese-funded media houses promote the telling of African stories through the perspectives of African journalists.
