Alice, For the first time since I started using Internet, someone has blocked my @jambo.co.ke address. I still cannot figure out what happened. My redundancy @information.go.ke is working. Let me respond to your questions in a roundabout way by narrating my experience this weekend. I went for gym at the club on Saturday morning. As I did my workout, a middle aged woman kept an eye on me. I sensed there might be something strange. As I walked out, she accosted me. She first apologized for taking my time and enquired if I mind talking to her. I said no problem. Following was our conversation: Woman: My name is xxx and work for an AIDs NGO. Have you ever heard of Swaggerific? Me: No. Woman: Then what are you doing at your Ministry? Me: Many things except that name you said. Woman: This is a dance that was introduced by a Jamaican Musician sometime in April and it is all pornography. PS I know during my time we rioted but this is not dancing. Do you have kids? Go check this on google. Are your kids teenagers? Me: Thanks for your information, we do regulate film but we are not the ones regulating or licensing Music. I will find out exactly how musicians are licensed on such performances. Woman: Do not tell me that. You are responsible for Internet. Go delete this rubbish from google. Kids are sending clips of this nonsense to one another. Me: I cannot cheat you that I will be able to delete this offensive content from google. You have a responsibility to take care of your children. I sense that no matter what I say here I am not going to make you happy. Woman: Dakitari listen. Please go watch that. They did it in front of innocent kids. They did it! By this time some gym goers were attentive wondering what our discussion was about. I sort of brought them into the discussion in order to free myself. It worked. Later I googled this new terminology swaggerific concert in Kenya. Even with my liberalist approach to life, it is baad. What should be our policy towards offensive content on Internet? While most conservatives may disagree with me, there is as much good in internet as there is bad. The difference is our approach to Internet. Parents should not allow unrestricted use of internet to minors. I am putting the burden on those close to children. Further there is nothing that young adults do not know. They will get over it as they grow older. This is the essence of freedom of speech. This however is moderated by the values that we instill in our children. You cannot pretend to manage hate speech through arrests. Let a value system evoke our natural conscience to deal with this. Our kind of hate does not run deep as in other countries to warrant censure of Internet. If we make sure that we equitably distribute our national cake, we shall avoid the 2007 crisis. By this I mean it must be seen that we all have equal chances of succeeding. I have done this before and I am capable of doing it in a large scale. On Media, we need to implement the broadcast regulations and the code that has already been developed. The hard part of coming up with a legal framework is over. Much of what the FMs were doing is what fed into internet and SMS. It is therefore imperative that we implement these regulations before 2012. I know we shall have a challenge with several court cases to be introduced in order to block smooth implementation but the power of the people is far much stronger. I will make noise when that comes and I hope I get the public support. I am confident that 2012 is a whole new ball game. We have several legislations that were not there in 2007. We have a new constitution that seems to mitigate against such eventuality. Regards Ndemo.
Dear P.S Ndemo,
I would like to take you back to the question on media.
The role played by media, mobile phone sms's, internet, (e-mail, blogs, websites, etc) during both the pre and post-election period in 2007-2008 is well documented, with media picking up and printing/broadcasting uncensored statements by politicians and sometimes government that amounted to hate speech, which helped to create the right kind of environment that exploded into our bloody violence, but also promoting good civic behavior, peace and human rights campaigns.
Government has so far responded with various media related policies and the new constitution is set to radically change the environment within which media operates. But taking into consideration the ever changing nature of new technology and how it affects media policy and regulation, how would you ensure that policy and regulation keep up?
-What has been the impact, has there been any additional policy/regulatory processes?
-How would you/your government address this challenge (hate speech etc) if it were to occur again?
Best
Alice
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