A SUMMARY OF LOCAL REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BODIES GOVERNING MEDIA REGULATION

LOCAL REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL BODIES GOVERNING MEDIA REGULATION

LOCAL BODIES GOVERNOR MEDIA

A.      Media council of Kenya

Functions

Council’s Role, Mandate, Functions and Authority

The Council draws its mandate and authority from the Media Act 2013. Its functions are to:

• Promote and protect the freedom and independence of the media;
• Prescribe standards of journalists, media practitioners and media enterprises;
• Ensure the protection of the rights and privileges of journalists in the performance of their duties;
• Promote and enhance ethical and professional standards amongst journalists and media enterprises;
• Advise the government or the relevant regulatory authority on matters relating to professional, education and the training of journalists and other media practitioners;
• Set standards, in consultation with the relevant training institutions, for professional education and training of journalists;
• Develop and regulate ethical and disciplinary standards for journalists, media practitioners and media enterprises;
• Accredit journalists and foreign journalists by certifying their competence, authority or credibility against official standards based on the quality and training of journalists in Kenya including the maintaining of a register of journalists, media enterprises and such other related registers as it may deem fit and issuance of such document evidencing accreditation with the Council as the Council shall determine;
• Conduct an annual review of the performance and the general public opinion of the media, and publish the results in at least two daily newspapers of national circulation;
• Through the Cabinet Secretary, table before Parliament reports on its functions;
• Establish media standards and regulate and monitor compliance with the media standards;
• Facilitate resolution of disputes between the government and the media and between the public and the media and intra media;
• Compile and maintain a register of accredited journalists, foreign journalists, media enterprises and such other related registers as it may consider necessary;
• Subject to any other written law, consider and approve applications for accreditation by educational institutions that seek to offer courses in journalism; and
• Perform such other functions as may be assigned to it under any other written law.

https://www.mediacouncil.or.ke/en/mck/index.php/about-us/who-we-are

B.      COMMUNICATION AUTHORITY

Its functions include

• Licensing all systems and services in the communications industry, including; telecommunications, postal, courier and broadcasting.
• Managing the country’s frequency spectrum and numbering resources.
• Facilitating the development and management of a national cyber security framework.
• Facilitating the development of e-commerce.
• Type approving and accepting communications equipment meant for use in the country.
• Protecting consumer rights within the communications environment.
• Managing competition within the sector to ensure a level playing ground for all players.
• Regulating retail and wholesale tariffs for communications services.
• Managing the universal access fund to facilitate access to communications services by all in Kenya.
• Monitoring the activities of licensees to enforce compliance with the licence terms and conditions as well as the law.

https://ca.go.ke/about-us/who-we-are/what-we-do/

REGIONAL BODIES GORVERNING MEDIA

C.    EAST AFRICAN JOURNALIST ASSOCIATION

Fight against  poverty pay,

·         job insecurity,

·         poor working and living conditions

·         , disregard of health and safety,

·         summary dismissals,

·         physical assaults, abuse, and even murder are risks they face while performing the profession of journalism,”

·         struggle for press freedom and freedom of expression

INTERNATIONAL BODIES GORVERNING MEDIA

• The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO): established in 1893, WIPO has a main aim of harmonizing relevant legislation and procedure and resolving disputes between owners of rights, authors and users.

• The International Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): this is the latest addition to an array of governance bodies. It is a voluntary private body that aims to represent the community of internet users. It started in 1994 after privatization of the World Wide Web and its main function was to allocate addresses and domain names, plus some server management functions. It has little power to deal directly with the emerging social and other problems relating to the internet.

• The European Commission (EC): the EC can influence certain aspects of broadcasting and telecommunications relating to the 25 member states of the European Union.

Others include International Press Institute

• conducting direct advocacy with governments
• raising awareness on violations of media freedom through news coverage, research and analysis
• leading programmes and campaigns to further change
• offering platforms for cooperation, networking and skills exchange among our members
• promoting high-quality, independent journalism through the development of best practices at the global level
• providing opportunities for dialogue among diverse journalistic communities, in line with IPI’s founding principles

https://ipi.media/about/

compiled by prof Mwangi