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From IFEX "COMMUNIQUE" # 6-50                23 December 1997
 KENYA: RULING PARTY DOMINATES AIRWAVES

The ruling party's domination of the airwaves will influence the
outcome of the December elections in Kenya, says ARTICLE 19. Since
new guidelines were introduced in early November recommending
fairer allocation of airtime on the publicly-funded Kenyan
Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), only a little improvement has been
seen. "The ruling KANU party and President Moi still receive over
two-thirds of news time although there has been some increase in
quantity and quality of airtime given to the opposition's point of
view and events," according to a monitoring project by ARTICLE 19
and the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). However, ARTICLE 19
says, since word has spread about the monitoring project, positive
portrayal of opposition parties has increased. The increase has
been dramatic in the last six weeks, says ARTICLE 19, noting that
"out of all the coverage the opposition received, positive
references jumped from 14 percent to 94 percent on the radio, and
from 16 percent to 95 percent on television." Coverage KANU
receives remains consistently 100 percent positive.

Richard Carver, Head of ARTICLE 19's Africa Programme said, "KBC's
efforts to tackle media bias should be sustained, but the changes
have come too late to make any real difference to this election.
For years, the ruling party has got away with corruption and
detention, torture and murder of political opponents. Tens of
thousands have been driven from their homes and disenfranchised by
state-sponsored violence. It will take more than a few weeks of
cosmetic changes to make the December 29 elections free and fair."

ARTICLE 19 and the KHRC have been monitoring news broadcasts since
July 1997. Monitoring will continue until after the elections. For
more information, contact Richard Carver or Frances D'Souza of
ARTICLE 19 at 33 Islington High St., London N1 9LH, U.K., tel:+44
1 71 278 9292, fax:+44 1 71 713 1356, e-mail: article19@gn.apc.org.
Internet site: http://www.gn.apc.org/article19/. In Kenya, contact
Njonjo Mue or Wanjiku Mwangi of the KHRC, at Box 55235, Nairobi,
Kenya, tel+ 245 2 574999, fax: +254 2 574997, e-mail:
khrc@elci.sasa.unep.no.

** ** **

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___________________________________________________
Bruce Girard             Agencia Informativa Pulsar
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
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