Publikation

There is little doubt about the relevance to study and understand the trends in  media performance on issues of public concern and national importance, as well as the adherence to the Code of Conduct of the Practice of Journalism in Kenya. Aware of this need, the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) commissioned this study about the performance of vernacular radio stations while covering the confirmation of charges against suspects of gross human rights violations during the post 2007-election violence by the Hague based International Criminal Court (ICC). The critical issue was to seek to establish any changes, both at the level of individual journalists and media houses, that might have occurred following the much hyped role of the media in the post 2007 election violence. Indeed, the issue was topical in the sense that one of the suspects mentioned by the ICC was a radio journalist working for a vernacular station. It has variously been advanced that the media played a big role in fanning tribal hatred during the violence, and a number of organizations, including the MCK have worked tirelessly to train media in conflict sensitive journalism.