from Judy Miriga
Does this means the Chinese are already controlling the Digital Global Telecommunication network, Internet & Media market through Kenya and Mumbai …?????…….
Wow….are the Chinese taking the world by surprise through Kenya and Africa……and for how long are Africans going to continue sleeping……..???????
Is this the “Free Trade Enterpreneurship” where Special Business Interests overcome and takes the role of Government which is expected to serve the Public and the Business community fairly….????………Is this the reason why there is a strong lobby for “Intellectual Property Thieving”, the reason for unscrupulous International Corporate Business investors scrumble to Africa……..the reason for Ponzi schemes to benefit the rich, the reason the poor must pay through their blood and life to the rich and powerful……???
Wake up people……Wake up the World, ………Wake up and save the world from the selfish and self-centred greedy rich………who will take take take and will not share……!
I am so disgusted sick and tired with these failed bad African leadership…….They must all be sent home for retire and inject New Leadership to take immediate control of the country…….
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
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From: chifu_wa_malindi
Subject: Kenya: The Lies And The Truth Of Digital Media
The Lies And The Truth Of Digital Media
Monday, 01 August 2011 00:05
BY JAMES KIMATHI
The furore that has greeted the award of the second digital license is welcome, because for far too long the digital migration process has been shrouded in an opaqueness that is not good for the public interest.
The Chinese, as had been expected, got the award and typical to the script, the Nation Media Group and Royal Media are screaming from the mountain tops for all to hear and accusing PS Bitange Ndemo and the CCK of premeditated bias and a lack of transparency.
First, the blame for the mess lies squarely at the door of the Ministry of Information. Ndemo and his team of bureaucrats should precipitated the crisis we are now facing. In the move to digital, the CCK, the ministry and media players held a consultative session that ended in a draft recommendation submitted to the ministry by the Digital Migration committee that two licenses be issued, the first to government broadcaster KBC, and the second to a consortium of the Media Owners Association.
The move to digital means all current TV infrastructure will be scrapped at the stroke of a pen, leaving players with millions in unusable transmission infrastructure. The idea behind the second license to media players was to allow them to form a single transmission company along the lines of the TEAMS telecom consortium to allow use of combined network.
After the recommendation was made, the Committee was disbanded and a new one formed under Ndemo’s chairmanship. The original recommendations were then immediately drastically mutilated without widespread industry consultation or concurrence. The Ndemo draft kept the award of a license by fiat to KBC and cancelled the award of the license to Kenya’s existing media owners.
Strangely, the new recommendation opted for two more licenses by open bidding. Under the new scenario, KBC and the Chinese will now be the sole people authorised to carry the signal of all the current and future TV…..??? (Digital=Telecom Transition 3 in one Signal)…….. operators in Kenya, unless a third license is awarded.
At the pre-bidders conference, industry players raised concerns about the transparency of the process especially in the light of what happened during the last election, when John Michuki against all existing laws instructed that all radio and TV stations to be shut down.
Under the current scenario, Ndemo or any government official with one word can black out all of Kenya, unless one gets a court order to stop him. The reason Michuki was unable to do that in the last election was that every media owner had their own infrastructure.
In his article in The Star, Ndemo claims that “..the ministry and the Communications Commission of Kenya have agreed to issue another license for the industry in view of the investments they made”. This is strange given that a month ago the same Ndemo and the CCK knew that industry investments needed to be protected, yet would happily tender the license to disadvantage Kenya’s media and endanger freedom of speech.
Kudos to Ndemo and the CCK for recognising the mistake in the policy and changing it. The Citizen and NMG award would have also in its own created an equally problematic duopoly. We understand they opted to go alone much against an MOA effort to present one industry bid. As a way forward, the license must now be awarded to a broad consortium of interested media industry players, to ensure that no one person can mortgage the future of press freedom in this country especially with another election coming up.
Ndemo, NMG and Citizen Media – let us put the noise behind us and as the President says get to work for the benefit of the people of this country. Enough said.
James Kimathi is a media industry analyst.
http://www.the-star.co.ke/opinions/others/34155-the-lies-and-the-truth-of-digital-media