At the Media Bill Kenya School of Monetary meeting, I proposed that neither government controls nor media is left alone to self-regulate itself. I asked for a independent media watch institute headed by consumers - the *confused* recipients of government propaganda and media self-interest/preservation angles. Obviously this proposal was unpopular to either. "In many a European country public broadcasting performance has come under severe criticism. The institution is said to have too much power with too little responsibility and no room for holding it to account. At the same time journalists are blamed for being too cynical, too scandal and hype focused and, in a competitive market, too much driven by the question 'what sells'. Politicians complain that the media try to set the political agenda, that policy making is unduly influenced and, worse, that journalists tell half truths and whole lies. It is as if the institutions legally or professionally entrusted with symbolic power, are losing the trust of those with political power...." '...The press serves as a watchdog for democracy, but a watchdog that barks too often is useless. An information channel that distorts the information fulfils no function. In any other sector where the product is so vital for society and the risk of a loss of quality so great, the government would have intervened. The principle of press freedom makes this impossible. Consequently this is a task for the press itself, given the potential danger and social harm of media that behave as a political actor without showing accountability..' Death Duties: Kelly, Fortuyn, and the challenge to media governance" http://www.yle.fi/ripe/Papers/Brants_Bardoel.pdf You will find I have retreated to "hide" park on this one. Alex On 5/21/07, [email protected] <[email protected]> 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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