May 3 was International Press Freedom Day. Journalists make their living by poking their noses into other people's affairs, but are not very good at looking at themselves, their institutions, their own practice and how they advance or hinder the values of freedom of expression that their profession is built on.

I was at the Goethe Institut in Nairobi to hear journalists celebrate the day and talk about the challenges facing them. There was a very interesting documentary, Uncovering Kenya's Media, produced by veteran photojournalist Khamis Ramadan.

The film looked at the unsung contributions of photojournalists.

In general, African journalists are badly paid and ill treated by their employers, governments and the wider society, but are even more badly treated because media houses and the wider society do not recognise their real value.

In Africa they are still seen as poor cousins of the 'mainstream'. Yet in this age of multimedia, the image is increasingly becoming more important than the written word. What people see or hear is more believable than what they read.

The film was both a celebration of the media and a critique by practitioners.

It showed the courage and dangers of being a journalist highlighting the case of a journalist who was handicapped while escaping police arrest and was bedridden for many years. He died soon after the film was concluded.

It raised the question of how those in power treat the media, and also how journalists treat one of their own. Kenyan media have seen a rebirth in the past few years. The bad old days were full of acts of courage and triumph over adversity, but as society becomes more polarised, the media are caught up in the conflicts.

An interesting exchange of views ruled the occasion after the film was screened. Sometimes the exchanges were recriminatory, at times heated and impassioned, but most educative throughout.

Most of the speakers understandably focused on the role of the media in the recent political conflict in Kenya.

Did the media foresee the calamity? Could they have done anything to avert it? Did they contribute to it?

Another set of questions and comments were on the professional role. Is the media free in Kenya? Is it professional? Is it controlled by the powerful, beholden to the rich and other vested interests? Is it cowed by government?

There were as many people on either side of these questions as there were people in the audience and all argued their cases passionately.

What I found very interesting was the assumption implied in the condemnation, criticism or praise of the media; that the media must rise above conflicts, prejudices, sectarianism and partisanship in the discharge of functions.

Yet the TV or radio producer, the announcer, the anchor, the photographer, the sub-editor, the editor, including this columnist are all human beings and living in the same environment as their readers, listeners or viewers.

In any polarised society is it not expecting too much to ask that the media not be a part of it?

They are also citizens and being in the media should not deny them the right to political participation. What can be legitimately expected is for the media to discharge duties in a non-partisan way.

As for being political: we are all political whether we state so openly or not. Even when many feign a lack of interest in politics, it does not mean they do not have a political position. Not having a position is also a political position.

Politics affects you whether you are interested or not. The media are both a source of information and disinformation, depending on the social, ideological or political perspectives of the person involved.

Objectivity itself is an inter-subjective process mediated by education, skills, personal integrity or lack of it, values, cultural norms, the power relations between the journalist and employer, and the journalist and the powerful in society: be they government, corporate leaders, advertisers, their audience....

If we are not angels, it is unrealistic to expect that our media will be peopled by saints: like governments, a people get the media they deserve.

Tajudeen is deputy director, Africa - UN Millennium Campaign.