[kictanet] [ke-internetusers] Kenya communications (amendment) Bill: Is media overacting?

Mon Dec 15 20:42:52 EAT 2008

Pole sana Crystal - the House Committee meeting with Media was advertised
for 3 days in the local dailies....

Brian

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 6:35 PM, Crystal Watley
<crystal at voicesofafrica.org>wrote:

> Brian,
>
> The meeting was not made public knowledge. If it had been then possibly
> more would have attended. Myself included.
>
> The Communications Bill contains many well thought out policies that will
> benefit Kenya in its quest to become an leader in information and
> communications technology in the region. I read the bill when it came out in
> its first draft form and twice more during the consultation and amendment
> period. The bill is still not ready to be passed into law. As it is a
> serious piece of legislature it needs more discussion especially in open
> public forums. Once the general public and the media take an issue with a
> piece of legislation it should be tabled and discussed until necessary
> revisions are made. I would like to reiterate this bill is not ready to be
> passed into law. If it is I would encourage the media institutions to
> challenge its legality in court. It has already been rejected in the court
> of public opinion.
>
> If what Dr. Ndemo and others say about the ability of the president to
> amend the act, although Kibaki is in a catch 22, he should see that the
> media stays free. What Kenyans should be afraid of is giving the government
> the power to decide on what dictates a "state of emergency". This has been
> used in other countries to suppress the masses and give all control to a few
> powerful individuals. The control of the many by the few is something we
> already see in Kenya. Information and communications technologies are to
> improve INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS. The proliferation of Kenyan content
> cannot be stilfed by the law or many will shy away from their use due to
> fear.
>
> Crystal
>
> On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Brian Longwe <blongwe at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> I too, feel that this is overreaction and misrepresentation by the media.
>> How many of the very vocal media personalities who appeared protesting have
>> even read the proposed legislation? If they did, they would see that the
>> powers granted are only applicable during a state of emergency. Other laws
>> set out the process and conditions by which a state of emergency can be
>> called.
>>
>> Our experiences with the post-election crisis this year exposed how
>> partisan and instrumental media can be to fuel discontent and in many cases,
>> media related information was used to take lives.
>>
>> Have the more responsible media houses forgotten so quickly the regret and
>> guilt they expressed, when they started crying out for peace - after they
>> realised how seriously wrong their transmissions were taken by the public?
>>
>> It is true that when Govt invited stakeholders to make representations
>> regarding the bill, the media houses that bothered to send personnel sent
>> only very junior officials - there's no knowing what kind of
>> feedback/representations these underlings took back to their bosses.
>>
>> How many media houses sent representations to the house committee that was
>> responsible for the bill when they were invited to do so? To what extent did
>> they engage with informed contributions, proposed modifications or even
>> proposed text to replace the offending sections?
>>
>> People need to realise that things like this don't happen overnight,
>> law-making is a process that provides any citizen with the right and the
>> opportunity to make their views felt and known. The masses that have been
>> mobilised by the media houses should have been in Mombasa when govt, the
>> house committee and stakeholders were meeting to among other things look at
>> sections of the Kenya communications amendment act - not now, when their
>> elected representatives have yielded to the due process and submitted the
>> bill to the President.
>>
>> my two-pence,
>>
>> Brian
>>
>>
>> On 12/13/08, Grace Bomu <nmutungu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I had signed up for the mars group protest yesterday on the
>>> representation that it was a protest on food prices and MP'S refusal
>>> to pay taxes.
>>> I am disgusted that the media have used our voices for their causes
>>> exclusively, disregarding ours.
>>> As a Kenyan, i think there should be a review on cross-ownership of
>>> media if democracy is to thrive. Also, considering the role of the
>>> media in fueling ethnic/ regional backlash since 2003,  isn't there
>>> need for a check on them?
>>> There may be misgivings on the arbitraly powers conferred to the
>>> Minister in charge of security but media has to be checked.
>>> The media should give suggestions on alternative ways to check them
>>> instead of using all their airtime and acres of newspapers to win
>>> public sympathy.
>>> Finally, they should stop branding it ' media bill' as the bill is not
>>> a conspiracy against media but a bill to amend the communications act.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com
>>>
>>> Grace L.N. Mutung'u
>>> +254721898732
>>> +254736091242
>>>   Kenya
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ke-internetusers mailing list
>>> ke-internetusers at bdix.net
>>> http://www.bdix.net/mailman/listinfo/ke-internetusers
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Brian Munyao Longwe
>> e-mail: blongwe at gmail.com
>> cell:  + 254 722 518 744
>> blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com
>> meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com
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>>
>
>
> --
> Crystal "Naliaka" Watley
> Voices of Africa
> crystal at voicesofafrica.org
> http://www.voicesofafrica.org/
>
> "You must be the change you wish to see" - Gandhi
>

-- 
Brian Munyao Longwe
e-mail: blongwe at gmail.com
cell:  + 254 722 518 744
blog : http://zinjlog.blogspot.com
meta-blog: http://mashilingi.blogspot.com
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