KENYA: How free is free? Journalists push the boundaries of press freedom in Kenya

Record ID: 362614

  • Title: KENYA: How free is free? Journalists push the boundaries of press freedom in Kenya
  • Date: 2nd May 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPERS ON SALE
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Communications,Entertainment,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA6QERCNC480NQOFPR0YPT9STO9
  • Story Text: For Kenyan journalist Mohammed Ali, pursuing the truth will often outweigh the risks. Together with his colleague, John-Allan Namu, they make up a team that has pushed the boundaries of investigative TV reporting in a country where free media has just recently come of age.
    Their reports examine everything from drug scandals and criminal gangs to human interest stories, which have won them several international awards in journalism.
    But the risky business of investigative reporting in Kenya has been fraught with threats and intimidation, they say. Their exposes have forced them to leave the country in fear of their lives several times.
    "In Kenya we are used to this culture of a you are threatened you run out of the country but for how long am I going to run? I have been to Germany I have been to Norway you know I have been to other African Countries. For how long am I going to run because of telling the truth?" said Ali, who reports especially in Swahili.
    "Because we are in Africa and because African has a past that has very tragic past both for its people and its journalists I think people in various positions of power and influence both inside and outside of government think that they can cow journalists that they can harass journalists simply because as the saying goes this is Africa, however we are part of a new generation of Africa who have lived through the experiences of our parents understand them for what they were, but know that we deserve better," said Namu.
    Investigative journalism is not new in Kenya but the willingness by journalists to cover these kinds of stories is growing.
    Back in the days of former autocratic rule under Daniel Arap Moi, journalists were arrested and tortured for publishing any negative reports on the government.
    Since Kenya's first multiparty elections in 1991, the media has experienced relative freedom of expression but cases of media harassment are not uncommon.
    In 2006 masked gunmen raided Kenya's second biggest media group, Standard forcing its television station off the air and burning copies of its newspaper at their printing press in the capital, Nairobi. The crackdown came days after police arrested three of the newspaper's journalists over a story on political intrigue in former President Mwai Kibaki's fractious coalition.
    A bill approved by the president in 2009 giving the state power to raid media houses and control broadcast content was reviewed and a new, recently adopted constitution is expected to further protect human rights and freedom of expression.
    Today, Kenya is ranked 71 out of 179 best countries in the world for journalists to work freely, enjoying some of the fairest press freedom credentials in Africa.
    Veteran journalist and media analyst David Makali, a victim of Kenya's brutal history of media intimidation when he was abducted and beaten for an expose about drug trafficking in the 1990's, says things today are very different.
    "We have evolved a big deal, we can boast that this country is enjoying press freedom. I think if the freedom house did an index of press freedom, Kenya would rank among the free countries. I would be surprised if it doesn't. In the past we have ranked from not free to partially free but I think right now one can probably say that you know, the press in Kenya is enjoying press freedom.
    There are 16 TV stations, over 90 FM stations and numerous print newspapers and magazines in circulation according to statistics from the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). There are over 12 million internet users with access to blogs and a plethora of online information portals.
    Five-year-old Ghetto radio FM is one the many young broadcasters that have found success in a country hungry for information and a growing middle class that is the target of a robust advertising market.
    The station was initially set up to cater for a young slang-speaking audience living in the capital's sprawling slums and low income neighbourhoods but its following has spread much wider than that. Staff at Ghetto radio say their appeal lies in their specialized focus.
    "Majorly we cover the youth of the stories of the youth that have not been covered, those stories that are over there in the ghettos that no one is able to get them. Those are kind of the stories that we major on. If you listen to our news we give more airtime the ghetto news unlike other stations where these press briefings are not our priorities," said news editor Clarret Adhiamno.
    Makali warns that the values of journalism should not be ignored at the expense of freedom of expression. Libel cases have cost journalists thousands of dollars in Kenya.
    "Younger generation journalists coming in who are not essentially... strictly speaking trained in the traditional sense of journalism. The functioning of the media or the traditional functions of the media have been eroded because also perhaps its society which is evolving so that people are no longer so seriously involved in serious issues, people want to get by, by the bare minimum information," he said.
    According to independent watchdog Freedom House, the use of bribery by political actors to influence news coverage is still a major concern in Kenya, as well as the allocation or withdrawal of advertising to control content.
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