5 Times Media Houses Have Fired Journalists In 2022

Imagine heading to your place of work every day and one morning, before you even key in your login details, an envelope or summons to the boss’ office occurs and the results are you being amongst hundreds of journalists to be affected by a mass firing exercise.

Reports of a series of firings have hit almost every prominent media house over the past two years, with the year 2020 seen as one of the worst for any journalist in the profession in Kenya. Big names, budding journalists and those experienced despite their names not being spoken about have fallen to the axe; no one has been spared.

In 2022, Kenyan media was thrown into a crisis after a number of media houses announced their intention to fire staff en masse owing to reasons such as operational costs, and digital disruption among others.

Viral Tea takes a look at five times media houses have fired journalists en masse in 2022:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

With its bureau office in Nairobi, BBC became the first media house in the last quarter of 2022 to announce that it was intending to lay off over 380 journalists across the world.

A presenter presenting the Money Daily show on BBC. /FILE 

The United Kingdom (UK) media house stated in an internal email that it proposes to initiate a digital structural transformation of the World Service with aim of serving global audiences better.

It was aiming to cut down its expenditure on international news content and services by Ksh3.8 billion.

"We need to immediately reduce our spend on international news content and services by £28.5m, and prioritise budget and resources on the content and platforms that will provide us with the best foundations for the future in each language service as we continue to evolve and develop our digital offer just as our audiences and markets evolve.

“We expect there will be a reduction of around 380 roles in total around the world, including the UK. This total number also includes roles in news Content and News output, as well as Operations,” BBC World Service Director Liliane Landor stated in an email on September 29, 2022.

BBC proposed to stop a number of world services among them Africa genre TV which offers programmes in English that include Business, Sport, Health, Children’s, She Word, The Breakdown, and Kenya Connects.

It was estimated that over 50 journalists based at the BBC offices in Nairobi would lose their jobs.

Standard Media Group (SMG)

Just a day later, SMG declared its redundancy notice to its staff owing to the disruption of its business in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic which it added continued to negatively impact its revenues.

"The company will ensure the process and the selection criteria is fair and in compliance with the provisions of the Employment Act, 2007 and the Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA) for union employees. All employees who will be declared redundant will be paid as follows," it stated.

"The company is therefore giving one (1) month's notice of the company's intention to declare redundancy with effect from the date hereof. The redundancy is expected to affect employees across various departments and will be undertaken in phases. The affected employees will be duly informed in writing," added the statement.

The affected employees were paid for days worked until the date of their exit. They were also to get severance pay of 15 days or as indicated in the CBA for employees who are members of a union, for every completed year of service.

They were also offered notice pay as per the contract of employment as well as payment of leave days accrued and not taken at the time of exit.

Recent reports however revealed that the CEO had turned to a delay tactic in terms of salaries to allow the impatient workers to fall off.

Nation Media Group

The bug of mass firings then moved on to the regional media house known for its Twin Towers in the Nairobi CBD. 

However, instead of going for the usual large numbers of journalists, it chose to cut down the tenures of senior editors and veteran journalists across all its products, including NTV which lost Mark Masai and Dennis Okari. 

At Nation, Churchill Otieno and Mutuma Mathiu were among the biggest names to be shown the door.

"Regrettably, this refocus will result in a reorganisation of our workforce. This is an extremely difficult decision in view of the prevailing business environment. This exercise will be carried out with utmost dignity and in accordance with the Labour Laws of Kenya. We will strive to provide all the necessary support to help those affected to manage the transition."

"While these changes are maybe unsettling, I am confident that we are collectively moving in the right direction. I, therefore, call upon each one of us to embrace the changes and champion our mission as we build the NMG of the future. I look forward to your support in the days ahead," the Group's Chief Executive Officer Stephen Gitagama stated.

Radio Africa Group

From NMG, Radio Africa was the next to announce its intention to lay off staff, stating that this was informed by a shift in the media environment that has forced it to make changes to its business model to keep it in competition with other media houses in the country.

"As you may have observed in the recent past, there has been a shift in the media industry that has over time forced us to make changes in our business model, to maintain our competitive edge as a company. 

"As management, we have been faced with a situation that requires a critical business decision to be made to ensure business continuity. We will therefore be reorganizing our internal business operations and in the process, we may declare numerous positions redundant based on the new structure," RAG Group CEO Patrick Quarcoo explained.

Capital Group

Despite stopping its planned salary cuts to employees, Capital FM, the radio station, under Capital Group, hinted at joining the rest of the media houses in a mass firing exercise.

"The reality is that even after engaging in consultation with employees, only 7 members of staff out of 112 have consented to the proposed salary reductions. We are therefore unable to gain traction with this proposal put forward and in compliance with the Employment Act, we are left with no option but to defer the proposal and radically rethink the future of our business," Capital Group Director Mary-Ann Musangi stated.

Musangi, the daughter of the late businessman Chris Kirubi, disclosed that she had spoken to a select number of employees who were attending the Strategy session, regarding the notice sent out on salary reductions on November 11, 2022.

She, in the meeting, had highlighted the grim financial situation that has been affecting its operations, revealing the losses it had made stretching as far back as 2018.

Mediamax Limited

The company which owns K24 TV and is linked to former President Uhuru Kenyatta's family had begun sending home its journalists in a mass firing exercise that happened under the spotlight and targeted staff across the board, including presenters and news anchors at the station.

Among those that were heavily affected were working at K24 TV while K24 Plus- its digital product- was also affected, with the entire team attached to the platform sent home.

Also, hard-hit were the People Daily newspaper and Mijikenda's Msenangu FM radio station, with sources highlighting that the affected journalists were summoned to the Human Resource (HR) office one at a time and handed their sacking letters.

Inside K24 news studios. /FILE