The government should move with speed to investigate the killing
of a journalist just days before World Press Freedom Day Sunday.
The
killing of the Eldoret-based journalist has focused negative
international attention on Kenya, putting it on the map of shame of
countries in which it is not safe for journalists to carry out their
work without fear of death and intimidation.
In the
past two years, the relationship between the media and the government
has been largely adversorial, with numerous attempts to claw back the
gains made in securing press freedom and the public’s right to
information through a series of laws and other extra-legal means of
coercion despite the guarantees provided by the Constitution.
OPEN NATIONS
Press
freedom, and the assurance that journalists can perform their role of
informing the society and acting as watchdogs against State excesses,
are hallmarks of free, open, progressive, and democratic nations.
Sadly,
Kenya appears to be sliding into the ranks of nations that do not
respect the rights of journalists as individuals and the freedom of the
media as institutions. Only recently, police assaulted journalists on
duty in Tana River.
Studies have demonstrated an
unequivocal relationship between press freedom and democracy and reduced
corruption in public institutions.
The more Kenya
slides down the ranking of nations where journalists can work unharmed
and unmolested, the greater the danger that the democratic gains Kenyans
have made will be clawed back and the greater the risk that corrupt
public officials will go unpunished. Indeed, a free media has been shown
to lead to a higher quality of government.
Any assault on journalists and media institutions amounts to a direct blow against democracy and public interest
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