Excerpts from the round table

Masiko: Our president does address the Press every month. All are invited and they are free to ask whatever question. When he has time, the president goes out to studios. We also have a baraza level where the leaders and common people ask questions. The Press is never gagged.

What capacity do you see for the new media? Is it sufficient?

Mwangi: We don’t have the capacity, but there is nothing to say that it will not grow. That President Kibaki has recognised Twitter, MySpace and Facebook suggests that the future can only get better. Universities are redirecting their energies to teaching this new kind of journalism. Whether it will help to get the kind of quality that people require, that’s another question.

Ulimwengu: The other day in south-west Tanzania, there were trenches on fibre-optic cables. The mobile telephone incidence is high. In 1991, there was an election in Senegal, mobile phones and FM radio stations were in the field. Rigging was reduced considerably, but everywhere in Africa today, people are using these gadgets to communicate information about tallying and counting. In Tanzania, this is developing.

Turning to what President Kikwete did last year, it was positive and we encourage him to continue. But this could be a smokescreen because, in the space of one or two hours you may not do much. But you need a permanent structure that allows the government to interface with the people. We still have a law that allows a minister to declare a publication banned. That kind of law can be deployed any time, and it worries us. We’re in discussion.

Masiko: There’s fibre-optic throughout Uganda. The Freedom of Information Act is in place and 99 per cent has been done. We’re trying to sort out the 1 per cent that has not been implemented. In the cafés, young people are surfing and Googling pornography. Are we going to let our people view all this junk? We’re trying to ensure the correct infrastructure and then we look at the content.

Chissano: We were wondering about radios and the people who bought them. We wondered about cellphones and now millions have them. So, the challenge is to provide services and people will find a way of using them.

Are Kenyan journalists lousy, and does the new technology make them more so?

Mwangi: Does the technology define the citizen as a journalist or a communicator? It goes to be defined by the quality. The Internet is aggregating what comes from the mainstream media to give it a wider audience. There’s no ethical framework. Traditional journalism brings out the ethical value of news and the gate-keeping role that it plays so well.