By
Tom Rhodes
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Police
arrest one of the protesters who gathered in Nairobi on December 18 to oppose
the security bill. (AFP/Simon Maina)
|
The
Kenyan press is being caught in the crossfire as authorities seek to strengthen
defenses against terrorists. On December 19, Kenya's president signed into law a security bill that has the power to stop
the press covering terror attacks.
The government has also recently criticized
the media over allegations that special units are carrying out extra-judicial
killings, and a local journalist who reports on security issues has gone into
hiding after receiving threats.
Provisions
in the Security Laws (Amendment) Bill 2014 allow Kenyan security forces to
intercept communications and imprison journalists for covering anti-terrorism
investigations and operations, according to news reports.
Journalists will now have to seek permission
from the police before reporting on such events, and those found to have
undermined investigations could face a three-year jail term and heavy fines, according
to news reports. The reach of the bill
includes penalties for outlets that publish pictures of dead or injured
victims without police permission, and extends to information posted on social
media as well as in the traditional press.
The
Media Council of Kenya and other Kenyan press associations denounced the initiative in a joint statement released
before the bill was approved and signed. "Terrorism should not
affect the importance of freedom of expression and information in the media as
one of the essential foundations of a democratic society," Media Council
of Kenya chairman Peter Wakoli said in the statement.
The
Parliamentary Committee on National Security and Administration sent the contentious
security amendment bill to the assembly after 64 people were killed in two
attacks in Mandera, a county bordering Somalia, in November and December, local
journalists told me. The attacks led to members of parliament being recalled
from their Christmas break so they could debate the bill on December 18.
This
tougher government stance towards the press appears to be reflected in its
response to the documentary "Inside Kenya's Death Squads," produced
by Al-Jazeera in Qatar and broadcast on December 7. The documentary implicated
the Kenyan security forces and foreign governments in extrajudicial killings.
It included interviews with people that Al-Jazeera alleged were officers from
special units who claimed the killings were part of anti-terrorism efforts and
had backing from the British and Israeli governments. Although the documentary
was not aired in the country, Kenyans were able to watch it via satellite TV
and online.
The
government denied the claims and, in a press release, said it had instructed
the relevant authorities to begin investigations on whether charges could be brought against those involved in the
documentary. It did not specify which authorities were investigating.
The
claims made by Al-Jazeera have been repeated elsewhere in the media, but this
is the first time the government has ordered an investigation into whether it
is possible to bring charges against a network.
The claims were also made in a
two-part series in September 2013 by Kenya's investigative program "Jicho
Pevu" and the English-language version, "Inside Story," and in a report published by The Associated Press on December 5,
2014.
In
an interview
with Al-Jazeera in response to the documentary, Information, Communications and
Technology Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi denied the allegations. The
ministry's principle secretary, Joseph Tiampati, said a complaint has been filed
with the statutory media regulator, the Media Council of Kenya, about the
conduct of the Kenyan and international Al-Jazeera bureaus, news reports said.
Phil
Rees, executive producer of Al-Jazeera's investigative journalism department,
stands by the accuracy of the network's journalism. "We would rather [the
government] addressed the content of the investigation rather than flail out at
the messenger," he told me. "It is a tragedy if the politics of fear
are now used under the guise of a security bill to put fear into the hearts of
journalists," Rees added.
The
reaction to the Al-Jazeera documentary has led to Mohammed Ali, the investigative
reporter for the "Inside Story" series, to go into hiding. Local
journalists told me that Ali received anonymous death threats on Twitter and in
phone calls after the documentary was aired. It is not the first time Ali has
been threatened for his coverage of security operations.
Ali and his colleague
John-Allan Namu received
death threats via anonymous calls and on social media in April last year for
their investigations into a helicopter crash that killed Interior Minister
George Saitoti. The then Inspector-General of Police David Kimaiyo also threatened
to arrest the two reporters during a press conference in October 2013 for their
critical coverage of the security operations during the Westgate
Mall terror attack in Nairobi.
The
Kenyan human rights body, National
Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, issued a statement December 11 calling on authorities to investigate and prosecute those
behind the death threats. "We are concerned that certain social media
commentators are associating the journalistic research by Al-Jazeera with
Mohammed Ali and resorted to social media platforms to malign his name and send
him threatening messages," the statement said.
Despite
the concerns of
the press, the Media Council of Kenya, and a raucous opposition in parliament
against the bill on December 18, it has been signed into law through the ruling
party's majority.
Once it comes in to effect, extensive reporting on attacks,
like the coverage
of the Westgate
Mall attack, and reports questioning Kenya's anti-terror tactics, could be quashed.
With the law's harsh penalties it will be easy for the government to curb any
criticism of security measures that are made in the press or on social media.
Tom
Rhodes is CPJ's East Africa
representative, based in Nairobi. Rhodes is a founder of southern Sudan’s first
independent newspaper. Follow him on Twitter: @africamedia_CPJ
Source: http://www.cpj.org/blog
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