PETER KIMANI} seriously speaking
The forum where truth is well told
pete.kimani@gmail.com
The scroll of black letters on white board filled our TV screens this week as three leading stations announced they were going off-air in compliance with a recent court order over digital migration.
“In a High Court sitting in Nairobi on December 23, Justice David Majanja dismissed a petition by three media houses… to have the digital migration postponed until certain critical issues spelt out in the petition are resolved…”
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My heart skipped a beat because I could not tell whether my TV set is compliant or not.
SPLIT IMAGES
Here’s a quick context. The set was purchased in London – don’t ask me why – and shortly after the expiry of its one-year warranty, it developed a certain defect that cut the images in two, with one portion inverted so that one couldn’t tell if one is coming or going.
It was most frustrating when watching soccer as a striker would be seen sprinting towards an opponent’s goal in one moment, and in the next, seem to be heading to scoring an own goal.
After making enquiries with TV brand dealers in the city, as well as engaging skilled technicians, I more or less gave up on the set when none of them managed to fix it.
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| This policeman was captured taking a perfect shot at some moving target near the University of Nairobi’s student halls, recently. [PHOTO:KIBERA/STANDARD] |
Last year, I returned home and found the set in perfect working order. I did not ask about its miraculous restoration.
Once again, the status of the set has come into sharp focus. I am curious not just about the digital migration calendar, but also about what the process is all about.
Reading the news this week, I got the impression that Justice Majanja was trying a little ujanja (trickery) to restrict media consumption by ordering a blanket ban on news media, which media owners promised they would contest in court.
I was alarmed because in the not too distant past, funny things have been happening since the ‘Dynamic Duo’ took charge early this year in the way they relate with the media.
But I decided to conduct a quick online search, which yielded Majanja’s ruling that seemed to inhabit a different kind of universe from the media owners.
Unfortunately, the ruling was replete with legal jargon and so I couldn’t tell if I was reading Majanja in the right way, or if at all I possessed the skills to interpret it.
MAJANJA’S RULING
Initially, I could hardly make head or tail of the chronology of events traced back to 1964. Majanja’s ruling concluded with a chronicle of the efforts to launch digital migration in the country over the past few years, as well as the legal framework that has been developed with the active participation of the media owners and other stakeholders.
Majanja’s message implied that what was put out to the public was a few shades lighter than the total eclipse of TV sets that media owners have prophesied.
As in all self-fulfilling prophesies, most of us will not know how to act when darkness descends, for we shall not know if the interlude of darkness is self-imposed as happened earlier this week.
DIGITAL MIGRATION
But as for me and my house, the so-called digital migration is a scary prospect that will test if the miraculous fix that reordered disordered pictures was a temporary solution, and whether the flashes of light and darkness will trigger old problems.
There is also a new problem: if scribes cannot tell their own story with faithfulness to truth, then what do they ever do?
