As the battle for political power tightens, media **uses are bracing themselves to reap from the b***ions being splashed by various candidates and parties. A vicious fight is also going on among Kenyan media **uses seeking to have the biggest share of the campaign money and a***eness creation by IEBC and other bo****.
It is esti***** that more than Ksh50 b***ion would be spent d****g the election period, most of it on advertising, promotions and a***eness creation. This means a huge chunk of it w*** end up in media coffers.
Each media **use has created room for politics to court political advertisements, with some even launching special programmes to attract viewership and advertisements as well as paid-for interviews. Actually, most interviews on Special Programmes are sponsored by the candidates in question.
With giant media **uses struggling to make profits, which has seen them **** a lot of their journalists lately to cut costs, a general election is always harvest time for most of them.
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The race for political advertisement revenue started with Royal Media Services(RMS) early this year, when it employed close to 100 agents countrywide to tap campaign revenue through their ethnic outlets.
Recently, Mediamax, owned by President Uhuru Kenyatta and deputy W***iam Ruto, launched a Kalenjin Tv and radio, riding on campaign spending. The outlets are meant to attract adverts that target Kelenjin voters.
Ens****g fair play
Nation Media Group(NMG) and the Standard Group (SG) have already positioned their print and broadcast outlets for the campaigns and money has already started flowing in with do***entaries by the Jubilee administration s**wing its achievements. The IEBC and political parties have also been constant advertisers.
Yet every carnival comes with some rules to ensure fair play, especially d****g an election in an ethnically polarised environment like Kenya. NMG, Standard and Mediamax, have already published campaign regulations for political advertising for candidates, political parties, coalitions, support and lobby groups and agencies intending to take out political advertising.
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The regulations have additional clauses to curb ********* in the political arena and reduce political sab*****. According to the regulations, advertisements w*** be rejected if they contain ******* or profane language or pictorial representation that, when taken in context, tends to or is likely to expose an individual or a group or cl*** of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, ***, ****** orientation, age or mental or physical disability.
This is geared at limiting incitement or content that could spark ethinic resentment or profiling which were responsible for the 2007/08 post-election ********.
As per the Nation rules, un***ranted ******* on the election agendas of rivals w*** not be tolerated, among others.
“Advertisements shall be rejected outright if they contain un***ranted ******* on the election agendas of rivals. Candidates/parties, coalitions, sponsors, lobbyists shall, **wever, be allowed to promote their own election agendas,” stated the regulations.
The giant media **uses also promised to sieve out adverts that touch or invoke religious sentiments, especially the name of God. The adverts w*** be rejected if they are obscure and touting bizarre messages, and invoking the name of God.
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Media **uses w*** not air ads containing press cut-outs/rug-outs and archived fo***** except where they are used to rebut or clarify claims that have been made publicly and were reported in mainstream media.
In a cunning move, political advertisements in newspapers shall only appear after the Opinion pages, journalistically known Editorial pages, save for PD, w** have not restricted placement of political ads. This gives priority to national news and nonpolitical ads and w*** avert a situation where well-heeled parties or candidates book all the p***e slots to lock out their rivals for the entire campaign period.
[crp]
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