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Press Center Response to threat to disband Media Council
| Response to threat to disband Media Council |
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20th February 2008 The Media Council would like to respond to remarks made yesterday by the Minister for Information and Communications, Hon Samuel Poghisio, the Permanent Secretary, Dr. Bitange Ndemo and the Director of Information and Communications, Mr. Ezekiel Mutua. The three Government officials criticized the decision of the Media Council to form a task force and argued that the Media Council cannot make such decisions and work outside the mandate of the Ministry. We would like to state that the Media Council is an independent legal entity established by an Act of Parliament and it is not obligated to take directives from the Ministry. The Government is only one of the nine stakeholders in the Media Council and does not hold any special position over the others. The Media Council is independent and separate from the Ministry and this is clearly stated in Clause 5 of the Media Act which states as follows: “The Council shall operate without any political or other bias or interference and shall be wholly independent and separate from the Government, any political party, or any nominating authority.” Contrary to the claims that the Council is contradicting the Ministry, the Council is merely fulfilling its mandate under the law as provided in Clause 4(l) which states that the Council will “conduct an annual review of the performance and the general public opinion of the media, and publish the results in at least two local newspapers.” The threat by Mr. Mutua that he can disband the Council is imaginary, out of order, has no legal basis and must be treated with the contempt it deserves. These remarks clearly come from a Government that is ill at ease with an independent media able to scrutinize its activities and open them to public debate. The Committee of the Media Council appointed to establish the task force has commenced its work and held its first meeting on Monday and is on schedule. This exercise will be carried to its conclusion. The Media Council will continue to promote and protect the freedom and independence of the media in Kenya in accordance with its mandate. |
| Kenya Audio Visual Archives Conference |
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The African Woman and Child Feature Service, the Kenya Archival Study Group and the Ford Foundation office in Nairobi, Kenya will hold the Preservation, Conservation and Restoration of Audio Visual Media Conference. The conference will be held at the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi, from December 3rd – 5th 2008. |
| AWC at the Highway Africa Awards |
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