Kenya: Protests Against a Law Aimed at the Heart of the Media

NAIROBI (IPS) - Members of the media in Kenya took to the streets Wednesday in a silent protest against a law that would compromise press freedom by forcing them to divulge sources. Passed by parliament earlier this month, the Media Council of Kenya Bill is now awaiting presidential assent.

A clause in the new legislation states that "When a story includes unnamed parties who are not disclosed and the same become the subject of a legal tussle as to who is meant, then the editor shall be obligated to disclose the identity of the party or parties referred to."

Their mouths gagged with tape and cloth to symbolise the ultimate effects of the law, journalists in their hundreds marched to the office of Attorney General Amos Wako and to parliament in the capital, Nairobi, to present a petition urging head of state Mwai Kibaki not to sign the bill into law. ... Full story