Nairobi — The Government has enough laws to deal with errant media and need not pass additional laws.

Nation Media Group editorial director Wangethi Mwangi said the industry was already self-regulating, and was opposed to interference by the Government.

Mr Mwangi said after hearing the views and concerns by the authorities and the public, the industry had come up with a code of conduct and set up the Media Council.

He said: "In the UK the Press is accused of being intrusive, while here, the political class want to control the media, accusing it of being biased."

Mr Mwangi said the media would always uphold its freedom to inform, educate and entertain the public in line with the licence it had been given by the society to promote public good.

Opening a media ethics and common good conference at Strathmore University in Nairobi, the NMG editorial chief added: "The media will do whatever it takes to convey the message to the public. Our role is to push the agenda of the society."

The two-day conference was also addressed by Standard Group editorial director Kwendo Opanga, the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Dele Olojede, Prof Karen Sanders from the UK and columnist and linguist Martyn Drakard.

Mr Mwangi said had the media not highlighted the controversial reports by former Ethics and Governance permanent secretary John Githongo early this year, Kenyans and the world as a whole would not have known the extent of grand corruption in government.

"It was after the media exposed the scandal, thanks to Mr Githongo, that the world came to know the full extent of corruption in the Government. That was a common good that has made Kenyans know who they elected to run the affairs of the country," the NMG director said.

But he noted that there were cases where there was a clash between the common good and Press freedom, citing a case in the US where the Press revealed moves by the Bush administration to spy on the public's telephone, using the threats of terrorism as an excuse.

Locally, Mr Mwangi, cited the controversial raid on the offices of the The Standard and Kenya Television Network by hooded goons suspected to be police officers earlier in the year. "The truth about that raid is yet to be made public."

At the same time, he noted that the Kenyan media were obsessed with political stories on the front pages of newspapers and in its news broadcasts. He cited the recent coverage of the launch of a 30-year development plan, dubbed Vision 2030 by the Government, as an example, saying the media gave the Kanu troubles more prominent treatment.

Mr Opanga also defended self-regulation in the industry, and expressed concern that the industry was targeted by the authorities even before the so-called Media Bill was debated and passed in Parliament.

He said the Media Council was formed three years ago, to be the watchdog of the industry that watches the Government.

"We want to be agents of change, like Ted Tanner's CNN which has made the world a global village," the Standard Group director said.

But Mr Opanga regretted that some government agents were only keen to "beat us up," using legal and administrative means.

He singled out the recently passed Statistics Bill, which outlaws the publishing of results of opinion polls unless the pollsters apply and are authorised by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics.

Earlier, Mr Olojede spoke on the media as a change agent. He recalled covering the transition of South Africa from the apartheid system, and later Rwanda, after the 1994 genocide.

The Johannesburg-based journalist said: "Rwanda was a lesson to me of how the power of the media can be used to do the wrong things. A radio station was used to fan hate and genocide. The Press was used there as a force of evil."

Mr Olojede said a vibrant Press was the most effective way to ensure that dictators were exposed and removed from the political scene, to avoid bad governance, corruption and genocide.

The keynote address was delivered by Prof Sanders, of UK's Sheffield University, who talked on political news coverage.

She noted that journalists were an endangered species in some parts of the world, citing the recent killing in Russia. She encouraged them to soldier on for the common good of the society.

"I find it interesting that politics is a preoccupation of Kenyans and the media, while in the UK the Press is obsessed with socio-economic issues," Prof Sanders said.

Mr Drakard, who is a columnist and linguist, told the conference on media responsibility and accountability, that the latest technological developments had exposed to society "a tsunami of information."

"News reporting is about people, otherwise it becomes boring," Mr Drakard said, and accused the media of an overkill on some stories, citing the coverage of the death and burial of Princess Diana and the ongoing controversy over international music star, Madonna, for relocating to London a baby she adopted in Malawi.