Kenya: Letter to President Daniel arap Moi

His Excellency President Daniel Arap Moi
Nairobi, Kenya
c/o Permanent Representative to UN in Geneva
Email: [email protected]

12 May 2002

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the
World
Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to
express
our serious concern at parliament's adoption of media regulations that
severely
threaten freedom of the press.

According to reports, on 8 May the Kenyan parliament passed the Statutory
Law
(Miscellaneous Amendment) Bill 2002, which seeks to increase the bond
demanded
of publishers one hundredfold from the current 10,000 Kenya shillings (about
US$128) to 1 million shillings. Vendors who sell newspapers that are not
bonded
face a fine of 20,000 shillings and up to six months in jail. Under the
regulations, publishers will also be required to submit at least two copies
of
their publications to the registrar of books and newspapers.

Failure to comply will attract a jail term of three to five years, a 1
million
shilling fine for first
offenders and disqualification from owning or publishing a newspaper or
magazine
for repeat
offenders. Newspapers vendors will be required to confirm that the publisher
has
met all the above
requirements before accepting to sell a title.

We are seriously concerned that the new regulations will have a severely
negative impact on freedom of expression and may force many hundreds of
publications to close. Such a development is particularly troubling in the
run-up to presidential elections.

We respectfully remind you that the new regulations constitute a clear
breach of
the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by section 79 of the
Kenyan constitution and numerous international agreements, including the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 19 of the Declaration states:
'Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek,
receive
and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of
frontiers.'

We respectfully call on you to withhold your assent from the Statutory Law
(Miscellaneous Amendment) Bill so that your country may fully respect
international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Roger Parkinson
President
World Association of Newspapers

Gloria Brown Anderson
President
World Editors Forum

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of
WAN**