By Francis Mureithi
August 4, 2007
Parliament in Kenya has passed a legislation that, by all standards, is draconian and which President Mwai Kibaki should reject to sign into law.
The House passed the controversial Media Bill after MPs sneaked in a clause requiring journalists to name their sources in court. This single clause has rendered the entire Media Bill retrogressive.
Concealing of sources by journalist is an integral part of universal journalistic practice. It remains an important avenue where by information is disclosed but the sources protected so that the parties involved are not endangered in any way.
As a matter of fact, when a journalist is compelled to reveal a source, the journalist will still be liable to that source, regardless of the circumstance because by confessing a source, a reporter breaches a promise of confidentiality.
If sources want you to disclose their names they will call you up. Otherwise it is meaningless and the moment you disclose them, that is the end of your cordial relationship.
And when whistle blowers know that in case of litigation they would be disclosed by the media houses, what they are likely to do is to hide in their cocoons even when they know things are going pretty wrong at their places of work.
This would be an encouragement to the corrupt individuals who will now have a free chance to plunder their public offices knowing that whistle blowers are scared stiff.
And is this good for our country? When mega corruption and other ills are orchestrated by those is power and those who get wind of such malpractices cannot speak out for fear of being disclosed incase of litigation, what a country will
That is why the President should decline to sign this Bill into law and return it back to the House until the contentious clause is amended. Otherwise, it would be another move of taking back our country to the old dark days.
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