Journalists sue over law on TV programming

Justice Onesmus Makau. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By SAM KIPLAGAT
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The Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ) has moved to court seeking to quash some sections of the
Kenya Information and Communications Act, which the union argues are unconstitutional.

In the petition certified urgent by Justice Onesmus Makau of the Employment and Labour Relations Court, KUJ said some sections of the law, which among other things, confers on the Communications Authority of Kenya the powers to set standards for the time and manner of programmes to be broadcast, is unlawful.

The section empowers the commission to prescribe a programming code, review it once every two years and set watershed period when large numbers of children are likely to be watching or listening to programmes.

The law also empowers the regulator to enforce the code. But in the petition, which will be heard on March 10, the union wants the court to declare that the CA does not have the power and authority to set media standards, including for TV programming for broadcast media.