Government goes after Citizen TV and other stations over Azimio mass protests coverage
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TV stations staring at a switch-off for providing live coverage of the Azimio nationwide mass protests
TV stations staring at a switch-off for providing live coverage of the Azimio nationwide mass protests.
On March 22, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) issued a warning to six TV stations about their coverage of the Azimio mass protest marches on March 20.
The stations were considered to have covered the demonstrations in a way that broke the programming code, according to the regulator.
Further, CAK issued tight directives on how future live demonstrations should be covered through its Director General Ezra Chiloba.
“The Authority has established that at least Six TV stations, namely, Citizen TV, NTV, K24, KBC, TV47, and Ebru TV provided coverage in a manner that violated the programming code.
“The coverage depicted scenes that could cause panic or incitement to the public, threatening peace and cohesion in the country,” the statement from CAK read in part.
CAK revealed that live broadcasting of inciting scenes should not be shown under the guise of freedom of the press.
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“While the Authority promotes freedom of the press, it is imperative that all broadcasters exercise caution in live broadcast coverage in order to avoid scenes that would be detrimental to peace and cohesion,” the media stations were warned.
Chiloba threatened that the TV stations will be switched off should they not moderate their live coverage in upcoming major rallies.
Failure to follow the indicated requirements will result in acting in violation of the license terms, which will result in liability under the applicable legal rules, including the loss of broadcast frequencies, the speaker cautioned.
Chiloba’s warning serves as a reminder of the government’s decision to turn off the media in January 2018 amid NASA demonstrations led by Odinga.
NTV, KTN, and Citizen were shut off by the then-Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i after they covered Raila Odinga’s fictitious oath-taking.
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