Sarah Nkatha is vice chairwoman of the Media Council of Kenya, regulating body of the media industry in the East African country.
She spoke recently to AFKInsider in Nairobi regarding the deteriorating environment for journalists in Kenya and the region.
The media has clashed with state authorities on two fronts. First, President Uhuru Kenyatta recently approved the Kenya Information and Communication (Amendment) Bill, which imposes punitive fines on journalists and media houses. This, viewed together with recent efforts to restrict funding for civil society, is seen as a move to roll back the democratic gains made over the past decade and to return the country to dictatorship.
Media owners in Kenya are also unhappy about the manner in which the country’s planned migration from analog to digital broadcasting is being conducted. They say they are not opposed to digital migration, which is supposed to be achieved internationally by June 2015, but that the government was rushing the process. There are not enough digital set-top boxes for converting analog signals to digital, they say, which means viewers will be left without TV coverage. Moreover, the three main TV stations have been denied digital licenses and frequencies. After the media houses went to court, the High Court ruled in favor of the government, but the Court of Appeal has now allowed analog signals to continue pending the hearing of a suit filed by media houses on Feb. 6, 2014.
Nkatha: We agree with the ruling of the court. The media houses must comply. That has been our position as the Media Council. This is an international obligation and sooner or later we would have had to effect this migration, anyway. They have been given enough time.
Nkatha: The president assented to the Bill and the media fraternity has been up in arms. They feel it is repressive, especially the fines on both the media houses and journalists. They feel that this is returning the country back to the dark days when the media didn’t have a voice. Journalists in Kenya are very worried because of the KICA (Kenya Information and Communication Amendment) Act and they don’t know what the future holds for them. Many of them may lose their jobs and media houses may have to close down. We are hoping that when this matter is brought before court, something will be done for the sake of the media fraternity in Kenya.
I don’t want to speculate why Members of Parliament and the president did this. As you know, we had the Westgate attack, and a particular media house came out to highlight what was happening. They even showed some soldiers looting, and that did not go down well with the government. The inspector general of police asked for the arrest of those journalists, and the Kenya Union of Journalists – of which I am an official – came out to condemn that. You cannot arrest a journalist for reporting what is right.
Remember also that recently MPs, were demanding very hefty allowances, and some journalists and human rights activists came out to condemn that and even took to the streets. That did not go well with MPs. Some of them even said that when these media bills come to the House, “We will deal with you.”
We gave our recommendations as the Media Council. We said we were not happy with the punitive fines and the Multimedia Tribunal. These were the two contentious issues.
The Multimedia Tribunal is similar to what the Media Council has. We have a Complaints Commission that arbitrates between the media, the public and the government. We felt the Media Council’s Complaints Commission would be rendered redundant.
The media fraternity is planning to go to court. This is spearheaded by the Media Owners Association, the Kenya Union of Journalists, the Kenya Correspondents Association, and the Editors Guild.
Nkatha: The functions of the Media Council in Kenya are mainly to promote and protect freedom and independence of the media, and also to promote professional standards among journalists, and uphold and maintain the ethics and discipline of journalists as set out in the Act and any other relevant law. We also conduct annual reviews of the performance and general public opinion of the media, and publish the results. These functions are similar to what other councils are doing in East Africa.
My concern is that those who will sit on the new body with similar functions are coming from East African countries. I have a strong feeling it is not going to be independent. When I was in Kampala, there are some journalists who were in police custody over a story on the mayor of Kampala. We have had similar problems in Kenya where journalists have been exploited, killed, and threatened with arrest. How can the same governments deliver? I would propose that we have an independent body separate from governments.
Nkatha: There has been a lot of harassment of journalists and some have even run away from Kenya. Some journalists have disappeared without trace, two of them. There is a journalist in Murang’a who was threatened by a Governor over a story, and even wrote to us. There is another journalist who was battered and his camera shattered. There is yet another journalist who was recently met by people on the streets and warned.
The current trend is worrying. We have not done much, unlike international organizations like the Committee to Protect Journalists and the Journalists without Borders. These have really been following up on some of these issues.
Nkatha: I think journalists have to do it themselves. They need a strong body. Journalists should come together from East Africa and the region, and set up a body that they can use as a platform to create awareness on their rights and what is happening to them. That will give them a voice to talk about what is happening in their various countries and even in the newsrooms. That way they will be able to get help.
