Lucianne Limo
19 January 2008
Nairobi — The Standard Group Deputy Chairman, Mr Paul Melly, has requested the Ministry of Information to give journalists guidelines on live coverage.
"As a media house, we know it is not the intention of the Government to ban live coverage but we will exercise our judgement and ensure undesirable content is not aired," he said.
He added: "We are willing to delay our news coverage for some time but we will be worried if it is unduly delayed."
Melly made the request to the Minister for Information and Communication, Mr Samuel Poghisio, when he paid a courtesy call to the media house on Friday.
Poghisio was accompanied by his Permanent Secretary, Dr Bitange Ndemo and senior ministry officials.
Present at the meeting were the Standard Group Chief Operating Officer, Mr Paul Wanyagah and senior editorial managers.
The minister explained that the Government had not banned live coverage but merely asked the media not to air raw footage.
"There is no such thing as a ban. What we want from media houses is responsible broadcasting and that they should edit footage that could fuel tension during this critical period," he said.
He asked media houses to desist from airing or publishing reports that may cause tension.
"As part of the healing process, the media should exercise balanced reporting and take the lead in returning the country to normalcy," he said.
Melly said the Standard Group would continue to act responsibly and exercise reasonable judgement.
He regretted that the media house was unable to expand its coverage due to the digitisation programme being undertaken by the Communication Commission of Kenya.
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