CCK releases proposed guidelines for political messages

Political parties will be required to submit political text messages for approval by mobile phone operators 48 hours before they can be sent out, according to new proposed rules.

The rules also state that the political messages shall be in English or Kiswahili languages only. The draft rules say that such messages should be sent between 6am and 6pm and transmission must also comply with all the laws regarding political campaign periods.

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) has drafted new regulations that are supposed to control transmission of political messages via SMS during the March 2013 elections campaign period.

On Tuesday, CCK invited Kenyans to submit comments on the draft guidelines before Tuesday next week.

According to the guidelines, politicians through authorised Content Service Providers will make a request to the mobile operators two days before the messages are sent out. The request will have to contain the "verbatim content of the political message".

The content service provider will also have to submit a signed authorisation letter from the political party or individual sponsoring the message in such form as shall be prescribed by CCK.

The application will have to contain the intended timing of the political message. The draft says that a mobile network operator has the right to refuse the transmission of a proposed political message over its network that it views not to be in compliance with the proposed guidelines.

“Prior to sending of any proposed Political Message, a mobile network operator shall vet its content to ensure compliance with these Guidelines. The mobile network operator will notify the requester of its decision within eighteen (18) hours of submission of the request,” the draft guidelines read.

Inflammatory

Mobile operators who are unable to ascertain through their internal vetting process whether the content of a message is not inflammatory, inciting, hateful or otherwise in violation of the law, are required to refer the content to National Cohesion and Integration Commission for further vetting.

“The NCIC shall respond to a request by an MNO to vet the contents of a message within twenty four (24) hours.  In the event a Political Message that had already been transmitted elicits an unforeseen negative reaction from the public or any other entity, the MNO shall have the right to stop subsequent transmissions of the message. In this event, the Political Party or individual that sent the message will be required to issue an apology to the recipients of the Political Message,” the guidelines state.

According to the draft guidelines no political message should be sent out bearing a mobile company or the content service provider’s name, logos, slogans. A political message must bear the name of the political party or individual disseminating it, the proposed rules state.

“Political Messages shall not contain offensive, threatening, abusive, insulting obscene or profane language. Political Messages shall not contain inciting, threatening or discriminatory language that may or is intended to expose an individual or group of individuals to violence, hatred, hostility, discrimination or ridicule on the basis of ethnicity, tribe, race, colour, religion, gender or otherwise,” the draft reads.

Poll tracking

The messages should also not contain attacks on individual persons, their families, their ethnic background, race, religion or their associations.

The rules also prohibit the sending of unsolicited political messages to customers who have not subscribed for the service. The content service providers must ensure that all recipients of political messages have opted into the service.

“Such opt in will require the express consent of the recipients and opt-out procedures must be clearly notified to customers and kept functional at all times. CSPs must produce evidence of such consent immediately upon request by MNOs or any other concerned governmental body or regulator,” the rules state.

They further say that any unauthorised use, sharing or sale of existing customer databases for purposes of sending out political messages, poll tracking and lobby activities may lead to the immediate suspension of the inter-working agreement between the content provider and the mobile companies.

Complaints from the general public against political parties or individuals with regards to political messages shall be lodged with NCIC for investigation and settled in accordance with the NCIC Act.