Raila faults Jubilee over TV crackdown

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has asked Kenyans to stand up and defend their right to information.

He also accused the government of violating press freedom and crafting an agenda to return the country to dictatorship by disabling TV transmitters belonging to independent broadcasters.

Mr Odinga accused the Jubilee administration of using digital migration as a pretext to forcibly take control of independent broadcasting in the country.

Today Kenya enters the 16th day without independent broadcasts after the government shut down KTN, Citizen TV, NTV and QTV. The government wants to force the media houses to put their content on two digital platforms, Pang and Signet.

Pang claims to be a Chinese company, but has secret shareholders registered in the British Virgin Islands. In the past, powerful people have corruptly obtained shareholding in foreign companies through shell companies registered in tax havens.

Signet is a government platform owned by KBC.

CLAMP DOWN

Mr Odinga said: “Governments that want to institute dictatorship start by dominating and directing the media and information systems.

“If we don’t wake up and defend the freedoms under threat, soon we shall lose even those we are enjoying.”

He accused the government of using the excuse of digital migration to clamp down on the free flow of information to frustrate the war against corruption.

Mr Odinga, who is heading an African Union election monitoring team in Lesotho, said that the threat to freedom and access to information could become a crisis.

“The government knows that it has already lost the war on flow of information...It doesn’t want corruption scandals unearthed, policies criticised, or failings exposed.”

He asked Kenyans, many of whom have been using the Internet and social networking sites as alternative sources of news, not to take that platform for granted either.

Kenyans have been living in a broadcasting blackout after the Communications Authority of Kenya forcibly switched off the four TV stations on February 14.

Officials from the regulator disabled the broadcasters’ analogue transmission equipment at a station in Limuru, effectively cutting off the public from independent news, entertainment and other programmes. The disabled equipment is still in government custody.

Three days after CA switched them off, the broadcasters withdrew their content from paid-for digital platforms, such as DStv, to protest the government move.

LOCKED OUT VIEWERS

They argued that switching off the analogue broadcasting had locked out majority of their viewers, who were yet to buy set-top boxes.

The Communications Authority has been seeking to enforce a government-driven switch-over from analogue to digital broadcasting in line with an agreement that Kenya and other countries signed in 2006 under the International Telecommunication Union.

The countries agreed to change their mode of broadcasting by June 17 this year. Other countries, such as Brazil and Mexico in Latin America and numerous others in Asia, have until 2020 to complete their digital migration.

The advantage of digital broadcasting over analogue is that one system is more efficient than the other and according to the ITU, no country will be punished for missing the deadline.

The government, through the CA, has consistently frustrated efforts by independent broadcasters to be licensed to broadcast their own content directly to their viewers.

Government functionaries have managed to portray independent broadcasters as opposed to competition, change and technology. In actual fact, the government plan is to ensure there is no competition to Pang and Signet.

Independent broadcasters have properly registered Africa Digital Networks Ltd, both as a corporate entity and as a taxpayer.

This, however, has not stopped the CA from saying ADN is not registered. The current argument is that a similar company is registered and, therefore, ADN must be deregistered.

SHAREHOLDERS

Whereas the directors and shareholders of ADN are properly registered and their names have been supplied by the Registrar of Societies in a letter dated February 23, the ownership of Pang has not been made public.

When he appeared before a Senate committee last Thursday, Information Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i pledged that he would reveal the ownership of Pang by Thursday.

Last week, the Star newspaper sensationally claimed that NTV, Citizen TV and KTN do not own ADN.

However, according to the Registrar of Societies, ADN was registered on August 6, 2014.

“The registered office is situated at Nation Centre,” said a letter signed by the Deputy Registrar.