Media Warned Against Biased Reporting on the General Elections

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) has warned the media against biased reporting during their elections coverage this year.

During a press conference on Thursday, CA officials discouraged broadcasters from using political messages that will be attacking individuals, ethnicity, families, race religion or even their associations, adding that they will be expected to adhere to professional standards rather than using their platforms to propagate misleading information to the public.

The broadcasters were directed to ensure that equal amount of airtime is allocated to aspiring politicians regardless of their capacity. “News during the election period shall not be treated to deliberately give some candidates undue advantage over their rivals,” said the authority.

According to the regulatory provisions that govern use of broadcasting platforms during the electioneering period, broadcasters are required to ensure consistency on amount of airtime allocated to political propaganda and rates to be charged for parties and candidates. The Programming Code obligates radio and television broadcasters to give equitable coverage to registered political parties in an election.

The authority reminded broadcaster of the code of conduct during election coverage which included not airing political messages which contain offensive, threatening, abusive, obscene or profane language. They were further warned against using technological gimmicks such as doctoring pictures of political rallies for the purposes of enlarging or diminishing crowds, a trend which most of the Kenyan media houses have been using lately.

When broadcasting events that are of national significance, broadcasters were reminded to ensure that they provide sign language inserts or subtitles in all their newscasts.

The Communications Authority of Kenya is obligated with the mandate of monitoring and issuing guidelines to broadcasters and the media in general and ensuring that the directives are followed to the latter.

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