KENYA: Kenyan journalists march against media bill

Record ID: 360841

  • Title: KENYA: Kenyan journalists march against media bill
  • Date: 15th August 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Kiswahili) LOCAL JOURNALIST, DOMINIC MUTUA, SPEAKING WITH TAPE ON PART OF HIS MOUTH, SAYING: "I would recommend that we protest to the last minute to make sure that this bill doesn't go through and also to make sure that the parliament and also the president refuse it."
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Communications,Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAESY8ZGHOCY4YPYN39W9O0VEPA
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Kenyan journalists tape their mouths shut in a silent protest against a new media bill that would force them to disclose their sources for any story that gives rise to a legal dispute.
    Roughly 300 reporters, editors and members of civil society groups marched on Wednesday (August 15) in silence from Nairobi's Uhuru Park to the nearby attorney general's office.
    Gagged with tape and carrying placards reading: "Protect our sources, Say no to media bill!" the demonstrators urged President Mwai Kibaki to send the proposed law back to parliament.
    But in a sign parliamentarians may already be preparing to back down, Information Minister Muthai Kagwe told journalists on Tuesday (August 14) the legislature had requested Kibaki send the bill back to be re-examined.
    Also on Tuesday, Attorney General Amos Wako said he had urged Kibaki not to enact the bill, although the president has yet to make a decision.
    At the demonstration, local journalist Julie Gichuru said the proposed law would intimidate people and possibly prevent them from speaking to reporters.
    "It is a veiled attempt to curtail the freedom of the press and intimidate patriotic and well-meaning members of the public who may be moved to give information to the media on finding official channels of communication to be hostile," said Gichuru.
    The media has had greater freedom under Kibaki than during the 24-year rule of his predecessor Daniel arap Moi, when reporters were routinely harassed and sometimes tortured.
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