EDITOR’S PICK: We Will Defend Media Freedom and Professionalism

By Kodi Barth

Welcome to a fresh-look, Media Observer, the watcher of watchdogs. We come to you from Nairobi, every Monday afternoon, to speak out on principles that define a professional, self-regulating media. As the umbrella body for everything media in Kenya, we come out with chests bare, ready to take a shot in defence of excellent media practice on this land. To do our jobs right, we will require all media practitioners to get ready to take personal responsibility for their work. Nothing more, nothing less.

How far we have come

Prior to multiparty order in Kenya, the state treated media  like an irritating gadfly to be swatted away at every chance. But even after we ended 39 years rule of the independence party KANU and ushered in President Mwai Kibaki to State House in 2002, the Second Republic still continued to
struggle with the idea of a free press. On the night of March 6, 2006, masked policemen with
automatic rifles stormed the country’s oldest pressroom, the Standard Media Group, kicking down doors, terrorizing the night crew with cocked guns, burning copies of the next day’s newspaper and forcing KTN staff off air. The next day, Internal Security Minister John Michuki stood up and bragged about it all. ―“If you rattle a snake, you must be prepared to be bitten by it”, Michuki told reporters on camera. It is this administration that a year earlier in May 2005 had proposed a law to govern the media. President Kibaki said in a formal address on Media Freedom Week that his
government would create “the legal framework in line with current realities”. Attorney General Amos Wako said it would be a “facilitating law“. And then Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua  elaborated that the proposed Freedom of Information Act would complement existing laws and ―ensure that Government officials have to make information available.But events in real time threw a dark shadow on the government’s real intent. The government was proposing this “good law” the same month First Lady Lucy Kibaki stormed the country’s biggest circulation newspaper, the
Nation, where she allegedly slapped a TV cameraman, seized reports’ notebooks and tape recorders to protest at stories about her behavior.  Against this backdrop, sceptic veteran journalists and media
houses flatly refused a government regulation and objected to a Media law. As the Raid on the Standard would come to demonstrate, the government’s intent on a Media law seemed obvious. Media had to be tamed. In fact, the 10th Parliament proceeded to pass the Kenya Communications Amendment Act 2008. The contentious law gave the country’s Internal Security Minister powers to
raid Media houses and confiscate broadcasting equipment. It also usurped the power of editors by allowing the State under Communications council of Kenya (CCK), powers to regulate broadcast content and prohibit cross-media ownership. The Media industry stood its ground. On the other hand, government flatly refused to yield 100 percent control, particularly of broadcast media. A violent stalemate was imminent. After much gnashing and grinding of teeth, reasonable men and women in Media and government found common ground. Bowing to pressure, President Kibaki on
the eve of January 2009 suspended the operationalization of the draconian Media law. Eventually, a compromise was struck to set up a publicly funded, selfregulating body. The compromise found home in Article 34 of the new 2010 constitution, appropriately titled, “Freedom of the Media.”

Is Media Council operating at full speed?

Today, thanks to the Constitution and Media Council Act No. 46 of 2013, all media accreditation and regulation is undertaken by the Media Council of Kenya. Stakeholders include the Kenya Union of Journalists, Media OwnersThe battle for regulating broadcast content was lost to the new  Communications Authority of Kenya. This battle was lost primarily because media owners, threatened with frequencies revocation by the State, threw in the towel for fear of suffering massive investment loses.
Regardless, seven years after Kenya rolled out a new constitution, word on the street is that the Media Council is not yet a recognized authority with teeth and muscle to execute its vast mandate. In fact, Chief Executive Officer Mr. David Omwoyo says that more than 20 positions at the Council need
to be filled. This perception of a capacity-strained media regulator should change. The Council should be seen and heard. Its mandate to set standards and regulate the Media industry should be evident to Kenyans. If this does not happen, State agents of yesteryears who have not arrived at the River Jordan to accept the gospel that a free, credible, and professionally run Media is an
indispensable pillar of democracy, will be giddy with joy. Or worse, public trust in the Media may erode. Either way, Kenya would be worse off for it. The Observer is a start, to steer the industry and educate the public on what the Media, particularly journalism, is about, what’s going right and what’s going wrong. Association, Kenya Editor’s Guild, Kenya Correspondents Association, Kenya News Agency and representatives of schools of journalism, among others.

We will defend Media freedom

We will condemn all forms of attack or intimidation against free Media from anywhere. For example, if the Kenya Police should come knocking on our doors demanding that the Council provide them with evidence of purported crime —because we do have a record of mainstream media content — we are not required to indulge the police, unless ajudge says we must. The reason is simple. We are an
independent, constitutional regulator of Media in Kenya.We are not the Criminal Investigation Department. And we are not Media police. The State cannot tell the Media what to write or broadcast, or how Media practitioners should do their job. Heck, even the Council can’t do that. Media has the right to be free, the right to be right and, yes, the right to be occasionally wrong. Say,
what? Yes; to exercise its freedom, ironically, the Media needs breathing room to be occasionally wrong. And when this happens, there are rules that outline what to do; for instance, issue swift correction, apology or retraction. If the Media wants to be treated with respect, its practitioners
must first hold themselves in the highest regard. In other words, we in the Media must set our sights high and purposefully insist on high standards in our own house.The Council’s role is to see to it that across the land, this is the rule of thumb. In other words, the Council is facilitator and guardian of self-regulation. Therefore, the industry must operate within mutually agreed norms and standards. Professionalism must be evident. Unethical conduct must be shunned. Rogues and quacks cannot be called journalists. Training should be streamlined and held to agreed standards. Order must prevail. All operators should stay on the road, not drive off the cliff.

Why?

We set out to do these things – wait, the law now requires us to do all of these – essentially because citizens need accurate and reliable information to govern themselves and to shape their futures, both individually and collectively as a nation. For this reason, the public partially pays the Media Council to maintain order and demand Media credibility. So, fellow journalists and Media practitioners, let us agree here and now that when we publish or say anything, we must accept to be held personally accountable. If we work under a media house, that house should both protect and bear responsibility for every operator under its roof. Now let’s get on with it. To start off, we hereby declare war on fake news and hate speech anywhere in Kenya. Next, the microphone is a powerful thing. Folks, anyone with amic at a radio or TV station should know what they are doing – and how to do it. Be warned; those who show otherwise will be called out.

Kodi Barth is Project Team Leader for Fake News and
Hate Speech at the Media Council of Kenya.