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Created on Thursday, 08 January 2009 17:17

 

The tenth parliament had its sitting and debated. Then after a well planned debate, they decided to draw up a media bill. For the last twelve months, the media has been accused of so many things. From provoking the post election violence to broadcasting information that implicated the government in issues without proper investigation. A media bill was drawn and passed by the parliament. It has however received mixed reactions from the public even though many have not read it.  In fact, that which they have read are sections that the press make available to them in their media outlets. The media being newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television stations has presented its view of the bill. The emphasize that which they view is an infliction of their rights, without presenting the whole bill for the public to see.

 

According to the press, one section of the bill gives the minister the right to raid  media houses. This of course is not true. What the press fails to inform the public is that the bill they are refearing to has been in existent since 1998 and it is not a part of the new media bill. They also claim that no live coverage of broadcast news can be done by the media unless there it is approved by the government,. This is not true. The bill gives the right to the minister of broadcasting during the state of emagency to censor live broadcasts. This is in response to the post election violence which seems to have been incited by live coverage of violence. The other issues involved broadcast contents.  The bill gives the communication of Kenya the power to regulate broadcast contents.

 

The media has been claiming that the government is interfering with the freedom of the press. But the question is, are they? The Kenya public is ignorant of what the content is and only the media houses have had access to the bill.  The Kenyan public does not historically read bills passed by parliament.  Chaos began. On 12^th December, during the Jamhuri day celebrations (Independence Day). The media crew wore black t-shirts with slogans on them and marched through uhuru park in protest asking the president not to sign the bill into law. One television crew member wore prison attire to representing the imprisonment of the media by the bill. One man took advantage of the press protests and managed to station himself behind the president. He stood up during the press protest and shouted as the president was delivering his speech for the day to his demise. This began the series of protests going led by the members of the press.

 

As weeks followed, more protests advanced with people marching down the streets with sealed lips to represent the gagging of the press. This media protests was highlighted by, doubling of food prices, fuel shortage and the fact that elected members of parliament are not taxed.

 

 

 

Although these issues demand protesting, I believe we should cool our horses and keep the tempers down. The holidays have come and gone. Then the president signed the media bill. The government is also taking steps to facfilite for better food prices.

 

 

 

The new year was marked with celebration and on the second day the president signed the media bill into  law. The president explained why he signed the bill calling on the members of the press to be truthful about what it is he signed. The media has put the blame on the president who has read the bill and decided together with the members of parliament that it is necessary. However the media has incited the public. To the point that the public blame him for signing it. My question is, who passed the bill in the first place?  Who sent the bill to the president to sign? The interesting thing is some members of parliament, blame him for signing the bill they had a chance to debate.

 

 

 

In response, some of the media houses have received resignation letters from their workers. Some of their  crew members do not want to work under so much pressure. The controversy is not clear about the media law. We sit away from the parliament and watch as the members debate. It has become a crisis to all that the bill was signed. But they forget to broadcast the positive sections of the bill.  The media houses have not shown restrain as they broadcast adult contents to the children. The law protects the innocence in broadcast programs.  They will finally restrict viewing of programs for underage children and then we do not have to be afraid of what our children watch while parents are away. Since the country does not have the advanced western system that allow parents to broc certain channels and programs, this is the only way to protect the people. The media bill also seeks to regulate e-commerce. This is important given the growth of wireless in Kenya.  We have many providers of wireless and they have not been regulated since the establishiment of broadcast licences for commercial purposes.

 

We continue to wait and see what happens next as the politicians do what they do best… talk. My hope is that they consider the interests of the public and try to reduce food prices and stop  fuel shortage. They can also do much like begin to pay taxes. The parents pray for the already planned teachers strike and hope that the government will do better as the tenth parliament opens soon.