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Internews’ Meeting Reopens Dialogue on Media Regulations in Kenya

(March 4, 2010) A roundtable event organized by Internews Kenya on January 28 offered an opportunity for the government of Kenya and media professionals in the country to renegotiate newly published broadcasting regulations seen as essential to healthy media operations.

“Our achievement today is that we have created opportunities to correct the wrongs in the media rules. Whether they [wrongs] were made wittingly or unwittingly is not the issue,” said Edwin Nyutho, a professor of journalism at the University of Nairobi who served as the moderator of the heated roundtable.   

Titled New Broadcast Regulations: Who rules the airwaves now? the roundtable brought together  stakeholders who had taken conflicting positions on the regulations published by the government. It was an opportunity for dialogue between government representatives, the media, defenders of free speech and other interested parties to examine the best avenue towards media regulations that would allow Kenyans to receive the best possible content.

The government’s position was that the regulations protected the people, while media professionals argued that free press rights were being curtailed.

At the end of the roundtable, Internews was asked to lead the process of engaging the government to ensure that differences were addressed for the sake of better broadcasting in Kenya. 

Background

The government has said that the regulations, which can be traced back to 1998, were meant to put together mechanisms to regulate and set standards for the media. Over the years, the regulations have been largely contested by the Kenyan media.

The January 2010 publication of the Broadcast Regulations in the Kenyan Gazette, effectively kick-starting enforcement of the new rules did not go down well with media practitioners who termed the regulations “draconian”, and raised concerns over censorship and restrictions on investigative journalism.

The government on its part countered those arguments, saying the regulations were necessary and must be enforced to protect Kenyans from irresponsible broadcasting, while creating room for diversity in the industry.

Differing views

Dr. Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Mr. Macharia Gaitho, the Chairman of Editors Guild, Dr Levi Obonyo, of the Media Council of Kenya, Henry Maina, the Director of Article 19, and Alex Gakuru, the Chairman of ICT Consumers Association of Kenya, were the panelists in the discussion.

As expected, two distinct points of view emerged in the discussion, with the media fraternity accusing the government of planning to muzzle press freedom, while the government, represented by Dr. Ndemo, called the regulations a “common practice.”

In the discussion, the government maintained that it was not working towards limiting press freedom as depicted by the media, but was keen on providing the best content to the public. Dr. Ndemo said the “Government has only set some regulations to govern the broadcast media because of concerns raised by the public….Without broadcasting regulations; we will be failing the people we are supposed to protect.”

The media on their part accused the government of sneaking into the regulations clauses that could curtail press freedom and inhibit the working of the media. Additionally, the media representatives said that they were not opposed to regulation but would want the government to stay away from determining content, by appointing an independent team of committee members to oversee the regulations.

Progress and future actions

The breakthrough in the meeting came through when Dr. Ndemo, while discussing sections of the regulations, acknowledged that while the regulations were largely good, there could be some “drafting errors.”

Saying that media stakeholders had not engaged the government in making the regulations, Dr. Ndemo challenged participants in the meeting to present to the government the contentious clauses to enable fresh debate between stakeholders.

He also gave assurances on the government’s willingness to review the regulations to allow for the creation of an independent body to look at the media regulations. Stakeholders in the meeting were relieved to learn that the government had not closed all avenues for dialogue.

Internews’ projects in Kenya are funded by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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