The Communication Authority of Kenya has suspended Mt Kenya TV's operations for four weeks following violations of programming standards.
The authority on Wednesday said it received complaints against the vernacular channel over the airing of inappropriate content on April 19, 2021, at 2pm.
Authority acting director general Mercy Wanjau said that during the ‘Mucii wa Ciina’ programme that featured an animated movie, the station aired sexually explicit content, drug abuse, robbery, and violence.
She said that the move was a blatant breach of Programming Code and ICT sector Law.
The authority said that it established the TV aired adult content during the watershed period.
She said that the move was a blatant breach of Programming Code and ICT sector Law.
The authority said that the channel aired adult content during the watershed period, and at the time when most of the children were at home during the school holidays, hence causing grievous harm to the minors.
Wanjau said that in its written response to the notice and subsequent oral representation during the hearing, the tv acknowledged that the content aired was indeed inappropriate for the watershed period.
She said that Mt Kenya tv attributed the violation to a content mix-up in the control room, but failed to explain how the offensive content landed on the content server.
During the off-air period, the channel shall put in place appropriate safeguards to ensure compliance with its license terms and conditions.
The authority noted that the licensee has continued to countenance non-compliance.
CA has also imposed a penalty of Sh500,000, which is recoverable summarily.
The tv has also been asked to review its internal controls and access to the system for queuing and scheduling of its programmes in order to prevent a recurrence.
The licensee will also avail all the staff of the station to undergo mandatory training of the Programming Code by the CA within seven days.
The tv will also review its editorial policy to align it with requirements of the law on the protection of children and to file a copy with the authority.
The licensee had also aired the content that had not been classified or rated by the Kenya Film Classification Board.
Further, CA said that the channel aired the content without acquiring the requisite intellectual property rights against the Kenya Copyrights Board’s requirements.