Mapping structural conditions of journalism in Kenya (original) (raw)

The media landscape in Kenya enjoys a broad range of state-owned, private and (non-commercial) community media outlets. However, this pluralism is challenged not only by a high level of concentration and cross-media ownership but also issues of political ownership. These structures are reflected in a high level of political/societal activity and parallelism of media, and an ambivalent journalism culture which fluctuates between critical and concordant, clientelist reporting. Within this context, the journalistic profession is marked by varying standards of journalism education and declining systems of self-control and self-regulation. Furthermore, journalists have a poor public reputation as well as low levels of professional security facilitating bribery and various forms of self-censorship.