Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki says he will reconsider the
deeply flawed communications legislation that he signed into law at the
beginning of the year. Kibaki said he would direct the Information Ministry and
attorney general to consider the concerns of
It would be good to see the president and parliament follow through by repealing repressive sections of the law that allow the government to raid media houses on vague security grounds and to effectively control broadcast content and scheduling.
But the work of a Kibaki spokesman raises skepticism. Alfred Mutua directed an expensive public relations campaign--some news accounts put the cost at US$100,000 or more--to prop up public support of the Communications Amendment Act. As part of the campaign, the government hired people to hand out leaflets on the streets to explain the government's unpopular legislation.
It's questionable to spend public money to encourage support
for legislation that has already been enacted, but one of Mutua's main arguments
is even more debatable. The publicity campaign claimed the act was similar to
legislation found in other democratic countries, notably
The comparison is far-fetched. The FCC blocks obscene
language and sets a time frame for children's programming. The FCC cannot,
however, set the "manner,
time and type of programs" of broadcasts as legislated by
The Kenyan act also gives the minister of information the
power to appoint all members of a new media regulatory body that supplants an
existing, independent one. Mutua was quick to defend the clause by saying that
the five commissioners of the FCC are appointed by the
Mutua's point of comparison, however, is telling. Many countries
do look to the
This week, CPJ wrote a letter
urging Obama to reaffirm
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Tom-I live in Kenya and just wanted you to know that the government has already agreed to consider amendments to the bill. The position of the Media Owners Association and the Editors Forum (to which I belong) is that the portions of the bill relating to broadcasting should be removed and a separate broadcasting bill should be created. Also, just as a point of information, I'm not sure how much Kenyans look to the US as a model of press freedom. I've heard several Kenyans argue that the US is a model of the way the press should behave--as a positive reinforcement of what the government is trying to do. I think this comes primarily from the performance of the US media post September 11, but also from the post-2000 election. KR
"It's questionable to spend public money to encourage support for legislation that has already been enacted..."
Why does CPJ care how Kenyan taxpayers' money is spent? And why do you think you should have a say in it?
What an absurd statement.
If the comparison was flawed as you state, why did Kenyan media not publish both sides, forcing the govt into paying to communicate with its people? The CPJ said nothing when the major media houses fired journalists who supported the bill - about 100 at Nation alone. Which journalists do you protects? And did you send Obama a letter about freedom of the press to broadcast bin Laden live?
CPJ does not care about Kenyan journalists, fired for supporting the bill. Nor does it care to question why the pro-bill position was gagged in the media. What a biased article.
The Nation fired 100 journalists *because they supported* the media bill?!?
Really?
Can the "unimpressed" link to evidence of that?
Tom, i know you will not publish this, but we noticed censorship of accurate verifiable polite comments that contained no socially nor legally unacceptable terms or statements, and began to save screenshots and email them round to each other. thank you for having shown me that this censorship is not local, but probably propagated by the west - we thought as much in discussing saved screenshots we emailed to each other.
What??
What is unimpresed talking about?? His (her?) comments attacking and making phoney claims about the nation, journalists, and the blogger are filling up this whole blog. but they don't have anythng to do with the bad media law and poor comparisons to US. So how about talking about the isue?