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{
    "id": 403488,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/403488/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 275,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Nyasuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 590,
        "legal_name": "Gladys Atieno Nyasuna",
        "slug": "gladys-atieno-nyasuna"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the media including the Kenyan media has this choice to make whether they want to be the watchdog or whether they want to be in bed with the Government and advance partisan interests. In some contexts we have seen the media actually advancing very partisan political vested interests and enhancing social inequities by excluding minorities. This is not the media we want to see. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as an Opposition politician, the media that is not in bed with the Government is my greatest ally and, therefore, I must support the freedom of the media at all costs and in the context of this Bill, I am of the view that self regulation is the key. When you look at the objects of this Bill, you see that the principal object of this Bill is to provide part of the framework for the realisation of the right of the freedom of the media as provided for under Article 34 of the Constitution. The Bill seeks to provide a body that is free of control by Government. This is what we are seeing in the objects of the Bill but when you say that this body is free of control by Government and yet the Council as currently constituted is actually appointed by the Cabinet Secretary, then what are we saying? Are these memorandum and objects and reasons of this Bill actually correct? Is it what we are seeing in the Bill? This is because from my reading of it, it is not. This is because Article 34 is very clear but when you say that the Cabinet Secretary will be given names to appoint people to the Media Council, if somebody is your appointing authority, how do you have audacity to go against that very person that is the one appointing you? Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Article 34 says that the State shall not exercise any control or interfere with any person engaged in broadcasting and it shall not penalize any person for their opinion. Even the State owned media is free to determine the content that they carry. The media must be allowed to regulate itself. I will give five reasons why this should be the case."
}