Don’t amend Media Council Act 2013 without stakeholders’ input, lobby says
By Dickson Odhiambo
December 6, 2021
Don’t amend Media Council
Act 2013 without stakeholders’ input, lobby says
Members of Parliament or any other state organs have been
told not to amend the Media Council Act of 2013 without the input of
stakeholders in the Media Sector.
Kenya Correspondents Association says it is out to ensure
that the Act is not amended without all the stakeholders’ participation.
Addressing the press in Kisumu today, the Kenya
Correspondents Association President William Oloo Janak said it will be in bad taste
for the Act to be amended without involving various stakeholders in the media
industry including the Kenya Media Sector Working Group.
Janak says any attempt to initiate the review of the Media
Council Act 2013 without other stakeholders’ participation will be highly
resisted at all cost until such a consideration is put in place to involve
them.
KCA President says the Media Council Act of 2013 was a
negotiated document from various media stakeholders hence its review should
also go through involving all the stakeholders within the industry to have
their input whenever such an amendment is done.
He says the Act was put in place in 2013 so as to
operationalize Article 34 of the Constitution of Kenya that was promulgated in
the year 2013, adding that it replaced the Media Council Act of 2007.
“We really worked hard in ensuring that our petition on the then
Media Bill 2013 was received by President Uhuru Kenyatta and this was after
several attempts since there were some people who wanted out voices not to be
heard but we insisted that our petition was worth to be taken not of,” Janak
says.
He says one of the Provisions that was there in the KICA Act
was that of fining Journalists shs 1Million was successfully petitioned and it
was reduced to a fine of half a million.
The Media Council Act 2013 is an Act of Parliament that
gives effect to Article 34{5} of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.
This is the Act that has created the Media Council of Kenya
as a body that sets media standards, Regulates and monitors the compliance with
the set out standards.
ENDS:
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