Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Kenyan media gets thumbs up

Written By:KBC reporters , Posted: Tue, Aug 24, 2010



Caption: The media was lauded for being fair and balanced during its reporting on the referendum on the new constitution

The Kenyan media has been lauded for fair and balanced reporting during campaigns for the referendum on the new constitution.

A commissioner with the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) Ken Nyaundi said the media proved to be "an excellent partner in civic education and identifying demagogues out to split the country."

Nyaundi said the media observed fairness and was balanced in its reports apart from being in the forefront in advocating peace and national cohesion unlike the situation in the 2007 general election.

Nyaundi who was speaking during the launch of a report by Peace Pen Communications dubbed "Spotlight on Media Coverage of the Kenya Referendum Campaign 2010" urged the media to remain within the platform of objectivity in their coverage of events.

However, he cited a few cases of irresponsible journalism saying at times adverse reports would appear in the media with quotes attributed to IIEC Chairman Isaac Hassan and other commissioners even when the writers had not contacted the sources.

The report on a survey carried out between July 21 and August 3, 2010 however seems to contradict Nyaundi's sentiments and indicts the local media for unbalanced news reporting, sensational coverage and inflammatory reporting.

The report cites a local daily accusing it of biased reporting on July 21, 2010 for running a story saying the government was using civil servants to further its cause without attributing it to any source.

"Such reporting on the front page seems to portray the government as flexing its muscle by not giving the civil servants a choice as any other Kenyans to make a personal choice on the referendum," reads a section of the report.

Mildred Ngesa, the Peace Pen Communications Director and her team of researchers focused on 16 media houses; Nation, Standard, the Star, People Daily and Weekly Citizen newspapers, Radio Citizen, KBC, Kiss 100, Hope FM, and Milele FM and Ghetto radio as well as Citizen, NTV, KTN, KBC and K24 television stations.

She asked the media to highlight positive issues on the community instead of concentrating on negative aspects that can bring division.

Meanwhile, media houses have been challenged to offer direction to the public on matters of national importance like the recently concluded national referendum.

The chairman of the Kenya Editors Guild Macharia Gaitho, said the media houses need to declare openly their positions on such matters to guarantee balanced and objective reporting to the citizenry.

"In some countries it is completely legitimate for the media to take sides because of the belief in a candidate and the party's manifesto or philosophy and time has come where we need to stand up for the right thing without fear of being accused of political leanings," he said.

"But if that responsibility is misused then we are in trouble because we still live in an environment where what the media says is taken as the truth," he added.

Herman Igambi of Royal Media expressed similar sentiments saying media houses must be bold enough to take firm positions for the country to move forward.

"As media houses we must decide from the word go in which direction we are going and take positions because we are leaders," he said.

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