Tag Archives: Journalism in Africa

Journalism in Africa: Kenya’s plans for industrial growth could boost media

Leave a reply

Kenya’s plans for industrialization by the year 2030 will have a major impact on the country’s media, writes Dennis Itumbi for Journalism.co.uk.

Intervention in economic policies, the tourism sector, improvement of roads, commercialization of farming and affordable credit to farmers are among a raft of radical measures proposed in the VISION 2030 document, whose overall goal is to ‘turn Kenya into a globally competitive and prosperous Kenya’.

The most notable changes are the proposed end to the currently retrogressive Official Secrets Act, which makes it illegal for local journalists to access government documents, and the introduction of a Freedom of Information Act.

The laws are contained in a voluminous document that also proposes to place Kenya in the league of fast growing economies alongside Malasyia and Thailand within the next 22 years.

Other changes being proposed in the development blueprint include a review of the country’s Media Act, the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation Act and the law governing media regulator the Communication Commission of Kenya (CCK).

Hannington Gaya, chairman of the Local Media Owners Association, has welcomed the move.

“One can only hope that this new document does not end up on a shelf like all others before it, since it has good intentions, and for the first time the role of the media in development is recognized,” he said.

“The Freedom of Information [Act] in particular is a welcome move,” said Gaya in a phone interview.

The changes to the Media Act could make it mandatory for both local and foreign journalists to undergo specialized training before being accredited to cover general elections – part of efforts to restore a balance to the country’s media after last year’s disputed presidential election resulted in countrywide violence.

Further changes to the CCK will introduce news ways of monitoring and regulating language on vernacular radio stations, which were blamed for fanning the violence.

Journalism in Africa: Kenyan government relaxes communication laws

1 Reply

Dennis Itumbi reports for Journalism.co.uk from Nairobi on the media in Kenya:

The Kenyan Government has bowed to pressure from media owners and dropped plans to outlaw cross-media ownership and endorse the invasion of broadcasting stations.

New laws tabled in parliament by Samuel Poghisio, Kenya’s Information and Communications Minister, suggest the controversial clauses have been removed from the Kenya Communications (Amendment) Bill 2008.

The removed clauses made it illegal to own a broadcast station and newspaper at the same time.

However, the new bill emphasises the growth of local programming at local stations. ‘The Kenyan identity has to be maintained throughout the programming and enhanced quantity of such programmes should be aired,’ it states.

At one time former minister Raphael Tuju, who now chairs the Ethnic and Race Relations committee in the Office of the President, demanded that local stations’ output was at least 40 per cent local content – no station complied. However, stations have recently been increasing local production across the country.

The new bill strips the Minister for Internal Security of proposed powers to invade ‘rogue stations’ and seeks to elevate the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) into a fully fledged information and communications regulator. If passed, the bill would empower the CCK to license and regulate broadcasting services.

The new proposals sailed through the first reading in parliament on Monday.

Journalism in Africa: Kenyan media accused of inciting post-election violence

2 Replies

Dennis Itumbi reports from Nairobi, Kenya, for Journalism.co.uk:

The Kenyan media is under pressure from the government over coverage of the fallout from the disputed general election results in the east African Country in December last year.

The country’s Independent Review Commission (IRC), which is tasked with investigating the post-election violence, has heard that the media’s live broadcasts were immature and used vernacular language to incite reactions from audiences when results went against their own political convictions.

“The media announced different results and did not provide guidance when disputes arose; the media failed the nation when it needed it most,” Moses Kuria, a political party activist, told the
commission.

Vernacular radio stations in particular were criticised for urging listeners to fight back for ‘their people’ during the January and February skirmishes that left over 1,000 people dead and hundreds of families displaced.

The same criticisms have been upheld by members of the Post-Election Violence Commission, chaired by Kenyan judge Philip Waki.

Representatives of the Journalist Association of Kenya (JAK) told the commission that journalists should be absolved from blame, as reporters were merely doing their job of relaying the events and were not involved in arming, funding or mobilizing any community.

“The media is a reflection of the society: reporters were not expected to act as state propaganda agencies and report all was well when churches were being burnt, families were being chased from their homes and politicians were inciting everyone,” explained Martin Gitau, JAK secretary general.

“Our role is to inform and educate. We stuck to our professional calling and where we went wrong we should be specifically blamed and investigated, not branded rotten when we were not.”

However, Gitau admitted that, ‘the use of live coverage was not done to professional standards because this was the first time the technology was being used to cover a general election at such a large scale.’

What role the media played in the post-election coverage will be publicly probed by the commission for the next two months at least.