[kictanet] Media Bill

[Brian Longwe]

To all,

I would like to take a little bit of your "airtime" and lay down a  
slightly different perspective with regards to the Media Bill that is  
under discussion. (Although my comments relate to any Bill that is  
put before Parliament.)

First and foremost my personal position is that I welcome the move to  
put a law in place that governs the 4th estate. On a recent radio  
input I emphasized that any sector law has two sides to it:
1) It defines and protects a particular constituent group e.g.  
Communications Industry (Communications Act '98), Childrens Bill etc...
2) It protects society and the Kenyan populace in general from harm  
caused by the parties covered under the Act/Bill

Therefore taking these two elements into consideration I would  
encourage that the media fraternity (and all other stakeholders) take  
this opportunity to engage with the process and ensure that we put in  
place a good if not excellent law/Act.

I will give a short story to illustrate my point:

In 1997, the Kenya Communications Bill was published - it aimed to  
regulate, govern and facilitate the growth and development of the  
communications sector. For those of you who recall, the first draft  
was a nightmare and if that is what eventually became the law - we  
would still be living in the dark ages of blind control.

There was a lot of activity surrounding this bill. I remember a  
number of public forum discussions that sought to provide government  
with opportunity to shed light on some of the less clearer parts of  
the bill (i.e. most of it) but also to hear from the public and  
stakeholders what their views and opinions were. The Institute of  
Economic Affairs played a key role in a number of these fora.

Eventually it became abundantly clear that there was a lot of talk  
but very little action. So a group of non-profits, Insitute of  
Economic Affairs, Econews, FemNet and East African Internet  
Association got together and went clause by clause through the draft  
and came up with a very comprehensive set of submissions that  
addressed what we felt were the key/crucial parts of the Bill.

As many of you know, in the commonwealth law system any bill of  
parliament must go through a series of readings. This allows both  
fellow parliamentarians as well as the public to provide input along  
the process. Public input into the process is normally handled by a  
select committee of parliamentarians who are responsible for  
capturing and channeling the inputs into the process and where  
necessary making amendements/changes to the draft.

In our case, we made an appointment to see the House committe - at  
the time chaired by Hon. Shem Ochuodho - and the Chair of the EAIA at  
the. Mr. Suchindranath Aiyer then presented the paper to the House  
Committee. At the end of the presentation our group was  
unceremoniously thrown out (paper, submissions and all). I guess that  
was the governance style of the day (read - KANU).

Nevertheless we didn't give up and decided to use all means possible  
to "squeeze" in our submissions. There were breakfast, lunches and  
cocktails held for parliamentarians - none of which seemed to yield  
much. Eventually it was too late - the Bill had gone for 2nd reading  
- and passed without any changes - now only the Minister and  
President could make any  changes. But we didn't give up.....

At the end of the day we were able to find a way of getting the draft  
to the then Minister - Hon. Ntimama. He read through our comments,  
understood all of them and passed them to the Attorney General to  
incorporate. The Kenya Communications Act '98 - which has governed  
our communications sector for the past 9 years consists of almost  
every single point that we had in our draft. As an individual I will  
always have respect and admiration for Ntimama - he was truly  
concerned and focused on this role.

I have told this long story to make one strong point. As a country we  
need good laws to ensure that not only our present - but our future  
and that of our children can be brighter than our present. I would  
strongly encourage the media and all other stakeholders to take hold  
of the olive leaf extended by this government - and the goodwill that  
is present at the Ministry - and ensure that we have a good if not a  
great Media Act.

Regards,

Brian



On May 21, 2007, at 10:14 AM, bitange at jambo.co.ke wrote:

> Dear All,
> I feel compelled to respond to Kanja's surprising response to the  
> Media
> Bill. Media especially MOA has decided to distort information with  
> blatant
> disregard of a journalist's cardinal rule (objectivity) to poison the
> People of Kenya with lies and propaganda;
>
> Here are the Facts
> .
> •The Bill was drafted by stakeholders among then Kanja himself;
> •The content especially on the code of conduct for journalist were
> transposed from the current code of conduct with the Media Council;
> •	All stakeholders were kept informed throughout the stages of the  
> Bill
> and Kanja as the former Chair of MOA received letters informing him  
> of the
> progress;
> •	The Bill does not seek to control, it simply gives some teeth to the
> Media council to regulate professional journalists;
> •	Regulation is not control (think, we all are free to drive but we  
> must
> drive on the left hand side);
> •	Without regulation you have quacks as journalists who may plunge the
> country into chaos (just listen to Venacular FM stations to  
> understand why
> we need professionalism in Journalism and remember what happened  
> with Hope
> FM);
> •	The controversy in the Bill arises from funding.  MOA and KUJ did  
> not
> want to fund the Advisory Board and the Media Council instead they  
> asked
> the Government to finance; and
> •	Government funding comes with certain strings as you all  
> understand and
> even if you were to fund you will expect the recipient to adhere to
> certain rules (we have gone through this with the World Bank even  
> though
> we did not like it).
>
>
> Bitange Ndemo
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------
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