The broadcast sector in the country is important and no more so than at a critical moment like now. The country is in the throes of a general election that is being hotly contested. The role of the media in providing information on the various candidates and what they stand for is critical.

How media play their role is provided for in the various instruments of governance. Most of us do not take notice when these instruments are being formulated sometimes until it is too late. At the top of the instruments is the constitution followed by the various laws enacted in Parliament to bring order and direction to the sector.

Further, there are guidelines and policy positions that provide for how the media sector is managed. Then there is the pronouncement of the courts. These instruments are revised from time to time to conform to changing environments and circumstances. Even court decisions are challenged in higher courts. Obviously, the lower down the rung the guidelines are, the easier it is to amend them.

Some of the policies and regulations have been undergoing revision to provide for a more dynamic and robust sector considering the changing social circumstances. In this sector, one of the more important instruments is the Kenya Information and Communications Act (KICA) which was first put in place in 1988 and has periodically been amended. There is a proposal to amend it again and as is required by law, the public is invited to give their views.

As often is the case in these matters organised groups usually take the lead in providing their positions. But sometimes organised views may represent partisan sectarian interests rather than egalitarianism. In the case of the media sector, it is often worrying that at times even journalists, the group often impacted by these tools, seldom take notice whether individually or collectively.

In the heat of these campaigns concerns have been raised on whether media are biased or not, whether they are democratic or not, and the extent to which they serve the public good. But for the media to be any of these then the framework of their operations, which are the laws and regulations, must provide for it.

Can a predominantly private media be expected to effectively play the public role of civic journalism? Media theorists may not agree on this but there is a case to be made that the public can demand more from the public media than the private media.

Even for the private media and particularly broadcast media, on the account that electronic media utilize the public resources, the public can demand more from them as a return on the public goodwill.

For example, the public can demand that media be more democratic, that it should have diverse ownership, that private media should be majority-owned by citizens, that both majority and minority voices should be represented and on and on. But such demand can only be made at the point when policies, regulations and laws are being made.

It is hard to get international news in Kenyan media. It leaves citizens less informed of what is going on in the world. Some have observed that there is too much politics in Kenyan media at the expense of development-oriented content. The public can demand that this be addressed.

Even the subject of poor remuneration of journalists that has a bearing on the quality of the content is a critical issue that can and should be addressed in these provisions by the regulator. Granted, we operate in a free market, but if the public was to require it, then license owners would have to give an undertaking to properly remunerate their staff, and that such staff be qualified, as a condition for the award of the license.

The public can not complain if when given the opportunity they fail to give their input into what kind of media sector they want. This moment of seeking public input into the amendments to be made to KICA is one such opportunity. Those that have concerned for the sector should take advantage of this opportunity and let their desires be known.  

—The writer is the Dean, School of Communication, Daystar University