By Leah Kowon
Kisumu, Kenya: The Media Council of Kenya recently launched revised election reporting guidelines to help Journalists in the forthcoming polls to be held in 2022. The guidelines are meant to ensure that Journalists and the Media fraternity provide unbiased, fair, and balanced coverage of elections.
The guidelines are also meant to help during the campaign period and the election itself will be covered professionally and with no biases. The revised guidelines were adopted after the media stakeholders amended a provision restraining media houses from announcing election results before certification by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
Speaking in Kisumu during the launch of the new guidelines, Media Council CEO David Omwoyo said the reviewed guidelines will serve as a self-regulating tool for the media during the 2022 General Election.
“These guidelines will come in handy as 50% of media stations which will cover these coming elections has never covered any elections before and over 50% of the Journalists have never covered any elections,” said Omwoyo.
The Government Spokesperson Col. Cyrus Oguna lauded the new guidelines warning that we also need to regulate ourselves as the media on what we say on our stations and media platforms.
“We need to regulate what is said in the local and community stations. If we light a fire none of us will be safe. We also need to integrate training of the Role of Media and the National Security” said Col. Cyrus.
The Taskforce that reviewed the reporting guidelines was led by Chairman, Joseph Odindo who noted the need to reflect on the lessons learned from the previous elections.
“We are not the only players in the industry. Upholding professional standards will elevate our practice and help push for accountability on promises and also ask our leaders to account for resources. We must ask the difficult questions” said Odindo.
In welcoming the newly revised guidelines on election reporting the President of the Association of Freelance Journalists Winnie Kamau noted the need to have a guide for all media practitioners.
“These guidelines are welcome for us as Freelance Journalists as it will ensure we streamline our profession. It is also important to build the capacity of Journalists all around to ensure the basic principles of Journalism are upheld” said Winnie.
The guidelines require all Journalists and all media practitioners to ensure during political debates and elections, to accord all candidates have an opportunity to participate while promoting fairness, equity, and access to diverse audiences.
