Globe public editor: Nairobi map unfairly suggested a terrorist community
Especially during times of ethnic tensions, it is much more important to tread carefully and not make connections that aren’t proven or even real, writes The Globe and Mail's public editor Sylvia Stead.
By Sylvia Stead, public editor for The Globe and Mail
The Globe’s Africa correspondent Geoffrey York has been covering the terrorist attack at Nairobi’s Westgate mall the past few days. With the standoff now over, the story will turn both to the tragic stories of those killed and injured but also more on who the terrorists are and the motivation of the Somali terrorist militia group al-Shabab.
His articles have been careful to explain the background of any religious divisions in the country. Yesterday, his article said: “The Westgate attackers, by targeting non-Muslims and deliberately killing those who could not prove they were Muslims, were clearly trying to provoke religious tensions in Kenya, driving a wedge between Christians and Muslims who have always lived side-by-side there. Most Kenyans are moderate, including most of the estimated 900,000 Somalis in the country, but the attackers appeared to be hoping to spark conflicts among religions and ethnicities… Ethnic tensions have already been rising in Kenya since 2011. Somalis have been blamed for terrorism, and the government has tried to evict thousands of Somali refugees from Nairobi – including the suburb of Eastleigh, known as ‘Little Mogadishu’ – ordering them to move to remote camps in the desert.”
So, it was unfortunate that a small map included in Tuesday’s newspaper file showed key areas in Nairobi including Westgate Mall, the airport, an industrial area and Eastleigh.
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Mr. York said it would be unfair to suggest there is a connection between the Somali neighbourhood and Westgate.
To continue reading this column, please go theglobeandmail.com where it was originally published.
Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.