MEDIA COVERAGE OF KENYAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN: REASONABLE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NAIROBI 004804 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF, AF/E, AF/RSA, AF/EPS, IIP, IIP/AF POSTS FOR PAO SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL OPRC PHUM KPAO KE SUBJECT: MEDIA COVERAGE OF KENYAN ELECTION CAMPAIGN: REASONABLE BALANCE, WITH NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS REF: Nairobi 04755 ¶1. Summary: A UNDP-funded, independent assessment of Kenyan mainstream media coverage in the run-up to the December 27 general election indicated that, from November 10 to December 10, media coverage was generally balanced and accurate, with a few notable exceptions. This coincided with US Embassy's more anecdotal analysis, which concurred that the major print and electronic outlets gave sufficient coverage to the leading parties' activities to allow voters to make an informed choice. While some of the media houses gave slightly more preferential treatment to one candidate or party over the others, the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) and privately-owned Citizen radio and television were conspicuous in their extra coverage of President Kibaki and his Party of National Unity (PNU). The mainstream media largely avoided hate speech and incitement, but hate messages appeared in vernacular media and in nontraditional media sources, i.e. websites and blogs. Kenyan voters have easy access to diverse media voices, including ridicule and critiques of prominent politicians and the most senior government officials. End Summary. UNDP Monitoring of Media in Campaign -------------- -------------- ¶2. The UNDP contracted with Strategic Public Relations & Research limited (SPRR) to monitor the media during the 2007 General Election campaign to determine the degree of equitable reporting on electoral issues as measured in terms of balance, accuracy, impartiality and fairness. The media were assessed with regard to the Code of Conduct for Journalistic Practice which provides guidelines on issues including misrepresentation, discrimination, and covering ethnic, religious, and sectarian conflict. SPRR also used the Code of Conduct for Journalistic Practice, developed by editors and journalists, to assess: accuracy and fairness; sources of information; outside influences; the role of media owners and opinion polls; the use of hate speech and incitement; publication of advertorials and attacks and threats; and separation of fact and opinion. The SPRR reports covered the three major parties -- President Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU),Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM),and Kalonzo Musyoka's Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya (ODM-K). ¶3. SPRR monitored the six largest newspapers (Nation, Standard, Kenya Times, People, East African, Nairobi Star); the top four television stations (KBC, NTV, KTN, Citizen); and the six key radio stations (KBC, KISS, Easy FM, Classic, Simba, Capital). They also monitored vernacular radio (Musyi, Mulembe, Ramogi, Coro, Kass, Egessa, Inooro, Sayare, Iqra, and Kameme). SPRR publicly issued its analysis each month between September and December. The December 13 report covered approximately November 10 to December 10 and these results reflected those of the previous reports. It concluded there was a fair attempt by the mainstream media -- with a few exceptions -- to keep their coverage of all major candidates and parties reasonably balanced, not giving excessive coverage and support to anyone. The primary exception was the state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, which showed strong partiality to the incumbent from the beginning, despite assurances that this would not be the case. Samuel Kivuitu, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, publicly castigated KBC management for their biased coverage. We did the same in a letter from the Ambassador to President Kibaki and his top two competitors (reftel). Balanced Radio Coverage of Parties -------------- -------------- ¶4. Radio is the primary news source for the Kenyan people. Four of the six radio stations, Capital FM, KISS FM, Easy FM, and Hope FM, provided reasonably balanced coverage of the top two political NAIROBI 00004804 002 OF 004 parties with only a few minutes of air time between them. In contrast, state-owned KBC English and Kiswahili services and Citizen Radio provided significantly more coverage to the President's PNU activities than to either of the rival opposition parties while Classic FM and Simba FM were even more biased toward Odinga's ODM party. Less Balance in Covering Candidates -------------- -------------- ¶5. The majority of radio stations showed a greater degree of bias in their mentions of candidates with Capital FM, KISS FM, Easy FM Hope FM and Classic FM on average mentioning Odinga in 50% of their election coverage, and Kibaki in only 32%. Again KBC English and Swahili services stood out as the only broadcasts in which Kibaki was mentioned significantly more frequently than Odinga (56% on average mentioned Kibaki vice 25% for Odinga). Kibaki was also mentioned more frequently than Odinga by Citizen FM and Simba FM, but by smaller margins. Positive or Negative Coverage; Positioning of Coverage -------------- -------------- ¶6. An often hidden aspect of media coverage is the difference between positive and negative reporting on candidates. In the first instance, the media cover the direct actions and statements of the candidates themselves. In the latter they choose to air grievances and third person reports to the detriment of a candidate. KBC general service and Swahili service provided much more positive coverage of Kibaki (64%/63%) than Odinga (40%/41%),and commensurately more negative coverage of Odinga (29%/26%) than Kibaki (only 6%). Citizen FM followed the same trend, with high positives and low negatives for Kibaki. Positive and negative coverage of the candidates by the other mainstream stations was relatively balanced. Nonetheless, the power of the incumbent was present as five of the six radio stations, including Capital FM, Easy FM, Hope FM, KBC, and Citizen FM, featured Kibaki as the lead story more frequently than other candidates. KBC general service, in particular, featured Kibaki in all of its lead stories, to the exclusion of all other candidates. Only Classic FM, and, to a lesser extent, KISS FM, more frequently featured stories on Odinga as the lead story. Vernacular Radio Stations: Catering to Tribal Audiences -------------- -------------- ¶7. Not surprisingly, the vernacular radio stations provided more coverage to the parties and candidates who were perceived to be more popular with their local audiences. Egessa, Kass, and Ramogi, which target pro-opposition audiences who speak Kisii, Kalenjin and Luo in western Kenya, carried more coverage on ODM than on the other two parties. Obversely, Inooro FM ("the only pure Kikuyu station") and Kameme FM, which broadcast in Kikuyu to Nairobi and Central and Eastern provinces, provide much more coverage of both PNU and Kibaki to the country's largest ethnic community and staunch supporters of President Kibaki. Pictures Tell the Story: Television Coverage -------------- -------------- ¶8. KTN and NTV provided fairly balanced coverage for all three candidates with only a few percentage points of air time separating the top two candidates (mid-30's for both Kibaki and Odinga) while giving significant coverage to the third candidate, Kalonzo Musyoka. Again, KBC and Citizen television were strongly partial to President Kibaki with coverage of two to one over Odinga in terms of air time. Positive or Negative Coverage and Positioning of Candidates -------------- -------------- ¶9. The positioning of television coverage reflects similar priorities. Both KBC and Citizen TV led broadcasts with news about PNU more than 55% of the time while the KTN lead story focused on NAIROBI 00004804 003 OF 004 ODM 60% of the time and on Odinga 43% of the time. The TV coverage was generally more straightforward because of limited air time for the news and did not lend itself to negative reports. Newspaper Coverage Most Balanced -------------- ¶10. In comparison with the electronic media, the print media provided the most balanced coverage of the three political parties and their presidential candidates, although preferences were still noted. PNU received slightly more coverage than ODM and ODM-K in the Nation and Kenya Times. On the other hand, ODM received slightly greater coverage than the other parties in the Standard, People's Daily, and Nairobi Star. But the variances were only a few percentage points throughout the entire campaign season. Polls Have an Effect on Coverage if not Electorate -------------- -------------- ¶11. There were four major polls conducted among the electorate throughout the campaign. The polls were a significant part of the print media coverage. Initially there was a huge gap between the incumbent and the aspirant. From the launch of the ODM party and his candidacy, opposition leader Raila Odinga held a commanding 10- 15% lead over President Kibaki in three of the four polls. But as the campaigns wore on over the last 12 weeks, there was a significant tightening of the race to just a few points separating the two. SPRR assessed that coverage of opinion polls by the media has improved and become more factual. Previous mischaracterizations of the polls and their survey group details had distorted people's expectations for the final vote. It's hard to determine if this has had an impact on the electorate, but there was a noticeable shift in the coverage of The Standard, which had started out as at least a low-key supporter of Odinga, to hedge its bets with more coverage and editorials supporting the government candidate. Positive and Negative Print Media Coverage -------------- -------------- ¶12. The balance between positive and negative print media coverage was mixed. The People's and the Nairobi Star's positive and negative comments about Kibaki and Odinga were evenly balanced, but the Nation was more positive on Kibaki and more negative on Odinga. The Standard was a bit more positive on Kibaki, and the Times was somewhat more negative on Odinga, but were otherwise evenly balanced. This is always hard to measure since newspapers, which have more daily space to fill, are more likely to pick up and publish negative comments from rival parties. It is interesting that despite this tendency, the balance remained reasonable in all the publications. Hate Speech in Nontraditional Media Sources, Vernacular Media -------------- -------------- ¶13. The SPRR report indicated that mainstream media had largely avoided hate speech and incitement. However, other observers reported hate messages increased in both vernacular media and nontraditional media sources including SMS messages on mobile phones, leaflets, emails, blogs, and online chatrooms. Blogs and e- mails have been turned into campaign platforms for and against presidential candidates. Online fora became increasingly virulent, nasty, scandalous, including ethnic and sexual stereotypes, and even libelous. Odinga has been the target of most of this messaging, although President Kibaki has received his share. A Kenyan National Commission On Human Rights (KNCHR) report cited instances of derogatory remarks by some PNU members against Odinga referring to the Luos' lack of male circumcision as "uncivilized." They also compared Odinga to Idi Amin, Castro, Satan, Hugo Chavez, and Hitler. ¶14. Vernacular stations have also been accused of fanning tribal hatred, with some being used by politicians for their own campaigns. Local FM stations also came under scathing attack from the Media Council of Kenya over their sloppy practices. One vernacular station's inaccurate reports on the outcome of party nominations for NAIROBI 00004804 004 OF 004 Parliamentary candidates were blamed for protests and the burning of houses in the troubled Kuresoi area of Molo District. Comment -------------- ¶15. Post interprets SPRR's detailed analysis of Kenyan mainstream media campaign coverage to show that, despite the blatant pro-Kibaki bias of KBC and Citizen, the media provided sufficiently balanced coverage of party/candidate activities to allow voters to make an informed choice. However, coverage by some media outlets demonstrated a partisan bias. Although hate messages appeared in vernacular media and in nontraditional media sources, the mainstream media generally refrained from such attacks. Kenyan voters have easy access to diverse media voices, including ridicule and critiques of prominent politicians and the most senior government officials. Ranneberger