Press Freedom and Globalisation - International Press Institute

Press Freedom and Globalisation
introducing democratic ideals. The press became a useful tool to introduce and support the
colonial policies. The emerging hostile indigenous press had to be bridled and suppressed,
and the British made colonial legislation to do so. 9
Kenya’s colonial government’s State of Emergency from 1952 to 1960 is important
for the history of press freedom in East Africa. The struggle between Kenyans and colonial
masters increased from the 1920s to its peak during the Mau Mau war in the 1950s. During
the State of Emergency, 1.5 million Kenyans were detained in camps or in villages of
similar purpose. The press was treated as in war, including a propaganda war, targeting
Kenyan, British and other foreign media. Yet, articles such as “Gestapo way in Kenya” and
other similar ones emerged in England. Despite this, the colonial government did
everything to silence sources, prohibit any contact between its staff and soldiers with
journalists, denying facts and cover information which was not in favour of the British in
Kenya. The means there were regulations as well as prosecuting, scaring and defaming
sources to control the press. 10
As a reaction to how mainstream media reflected the colonial rulers, a number of
underground newspapers come into existence in Kenya. Out of this grew an alternative
press as opposition to the mainstream press. 11 Despite nicknames as gutter press or similar,
these newspapers have been included in the mainstream political process. 12
Around 1960, most African colonies got their independence. The East African
countries gained freedom between 1961-63. The transforming to African rule ensured an
almost status quo in structures of power and economics. A new African elite emerged with
similar interests to European colonial masters and settlers. Africans got the political
9 Makali (ed.), Media Law and Practice, pp. 49-52.
10 Elkins, Caroline, Britain’s Gulag : The Brutal End of Empire in Kenya (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005), pp.
46-47, 54-55, 84, 274, 284-292, 307 and 344-349; and Makali (ed.), Media Law and Practice, pp. 66-67.
11 Karanja, Mugambi, “Growth of print media in Kenya” in Odero, Mitch and Kamweru, Esther (eds.), Media
culture and performance in Kenya (Nairobi: Eastern Africa Media Institute and Friedrich Ebert Stiftung,
2000), pp. 27-28, 31 and 33.
12 Ogundimu, “Media and Democracy in Twenty-First-Century Africa”, p. 219.
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