• Kenya has jumped four places to position 100 in the World Press Freedom index
• This development paints a bleak future for journalists and media houses
Media space and freedom in the country have been on a downward spiral since 2016, a new report by Reporters Without Borders has shown.
The report shows the country has been consistently declining in the World Press Freedom index ranking since 2016, with the latest being position 100 out of 180 countries.
Norway is ranked the world’s safest and freest place to practise journalism. In 2016 and 2017, Kenya was ranked 95th, but this declined the following year to position 96. However, this year, the country jumped four places to position 100, a development that paints a bleak future for journalists and media houses.
The report cites the restrictive political and legal frameworks in the country that are prohibitive in nature, hindering the free dissemination of information.
Security reasons, in particular terrorism, have been used as the grounds for restricting the flow of information in the country, the report indicates.
“The political situation and security concerns have been used since 2016 as grounds for restricting the freedom to inform,” the ranking citation reads.
The report also reviews the freedom of the media relative to the political developments in the country, particularly the shutting down of the four leading television stations last year, passing a verdict that the President Uhuru Kenyatta-led Jubilee government is intolerant to the freedom of the media and journalists.
“During election campaigns, the media are routinely subjected to physical attacks by the security forces and the public, as well as to threats and intimidation by politicians, confiscation of equipment, and censorship of journalistic content. Journalists can pay dearly for covering opposition events or for portraying President Uhuru Kenyatta’s party and its flaws in a negative light,” the report reads in part.
The report also cites the 2014 Security Laws Amendment Act as a tool for restricting freedom and criminalising fair criticism and the practice of journalism.
“Under [the] new law on online content that took effect in 2018, defamation is punishable by heavy fines and prison sentences,” it reads.
The new law and the cumulative effects of the tightened grip on the media have necessitated self-censorship, which effectively curtails the free sharing of information, it said.
“The privately owned media’s financial problems and self-censorship in the state media are also having a negative impact on press freedom,” the report explains.
ADVERT REVENUES WITHHELD
Media Council of Kenya CEO David Omwoyo said though there are no reporters who have been arrested for doing their work, the workings of media houses are still undermined through withholding of advertising revenues by the state departments.
Omwoyo said members of the public have grown hostile towards journalists, citing a case in which secondary school students ganged up with their teachers in Kisii county to attack journalists.
“The society used to respect journalists, holding them in awe. But this has deteriorated tremendously, even harassing and beating up reporters who are doing their work,” he said.
Article 19’s regional director Henry Maina said freedom of the press is undermined by threats that journalists continue to receive. “There are cases where journalists have been brutalised and their cameras confiscated especially at the grassroots level. We have also cases where members of the public have also increasingly become unfriendly to journalists,” he said.
Maina urged journalists to take extra caution in covering stories in hostile environments, especially through the use of technology.
“A journalist covering a demo where irate police officers have dispersed young school children violently must obviously be careful. How do you go before such an officer to get an exclusive photo without thinking he will spare your skull with his baton?” he said.
Last year, there were there were numerous media reports indicating that journalists were assaulted by police officers while covering various events.