Mudavadi lauds 45-day reprieve for analogue television viewers

UDF leader Musalia Mudavadi says the hard line stance against the major media players has produced a negative opinion on the Jubilee government. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]

By John Muthoni

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United Democratic Front (UDF) leader Musalia Mudavadi has lauded the move by the Court of Appeal to grant a 45-day stay of execution of the broadcast media migration to digital.

He said the decision by the court provided the government an opportunity to step back and reflect on its decision making process and how best it would have implemented the policy to a success instead of the current draw back and court battles.

Yawning gap

“Granted that both parties, the government and media, are agreed on the need to migrate, there is a yawning gap in government arguments relating to technical, financial and social implications of the policy.”

The UDF leader said the hard line taken against the country’s major media players has produced a negative opinion on the Jubilee Government, in which, he says, it is seen as if the government is bent on stifling media practice.

He said he did not see a crisis necessitating the drastic action contemplated in rushed deadlines and threats by government, sighting that the migration should be a process and not an instant action.

“The government began with two outwardly unconstitutional media laws and now the conflict on digital migration.

The government should begin to regard and treat media as an institution of great social and economic value than a political inconvenience.

The recent trend cautions that Acts of Parliament should not be designed to subvert the constitution but to expedite it’s functioning,” said Mudavadi.

He argued that The Standard, Nation and Royal Media groups should have been given an equal platform to compete rather than leaving them under the mercies of their competitors, the Pan African Group.

He said: “Granting Signet and the PANG exclusive rights to content transmission signals serves the negative perception of government intent to control media output.”

Musalia said the suspicious unavailability of the Set Top Boxes in the market and high pricing sends signals of insider trading, which is out to make a kill at the expense of the public. This, he added, is clearly not a worthy business course.

He condemned the move by the government of forcing the media and the public into given economic policies but advised that it should review it and open a platform of liberal and fair competition between the media players.

“Financially, neither media nor media consumers have been prepared long enough to absorb the shocks that will come with migration. Millions do not know what this migration is all about and how they should respond. The dearth of awareness must first be resolved by government,” he said.

He said the government should look into the plight of the common man who put it in power, sighting the economic strength of many Kenyans is feeble given the current economic crisis in the world, and thus need to come up with an efficient and considerate migration process.