Mucheru says draft law on blogger video uploads to be amended
TUESDAY
OCTOBER 25 2016
ICT
secretary Joe Mucheru. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
· ICT secretary Joe Mucheru
says the Films, Stage Plays and Publication Bill is still in the draft stage
and that ultimately “sanity will prevail”.
·
Under the proposed law,
Kenyans posting video content online would need to have it classified by the
Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB).
·
The law also authorises
police officers to stop the shooting of films and videos which they feel have
content that is against KFCB regulations.
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By MUTHOKI MUMO
A
controversial Bill that would require Kenyans posting videos online to seek
clearance of the Kenya Film Classification Board (KFCB) will be amended, a
Cabinet Secretary has said.
ICT
Secretary Joe Mucheru said in an interview the Films, Stage Plays and
Publication Bill authored by KFCB is still in the draft stage and that
ultimately “sanity will prevail”.
It has
caused uproar mainly from Kenyan bloggers and artists.
Under
the law, Kenyans posting video content online would need to have it classified
by KFCB. It also authorises police officers to stop the shooting of films and
videos which they feel have content that is against KFCB regulations.
Mr
Mucheru said the Bill was likely to be amended after consultations within the
Cabinet and feedback from the public.
“Other
views will come in and I think that at the end we will get a position where we
cannot kill innovation… so I think the country should not be panicking,” said
Mr Mucheru.
There
had been concerns that the proposed law would stifle Kenya’s nascent
television, film and technologies industries.
The
government is seeking to stimulate growth in these sectors through various
projects and policy initiatives. In one of these, audio and video recording
studios will be set up at the county level, allowing artists to record content
at subsidised rates.
Already,
five such studios have been set up and are awaiting operationalisation in
Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa.
The
Studio Mashinani project is under the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), the
State broadcaster.
Artists
will be able to either sell the content to the national broadcaster or pay a
fee for the recording services if they wish to find different buyers in the
open market.
“We
want to make them accessible to our young people who are struggling to record
music or plays and they don’t have a facility where they can go,” said Mr
Mucheru.
Kenya’s
film and music sectors have the potential to contribute significantly to the
economy.
Kenya’s
film industry is estimated to be worth about Sh7 billion ($70 million).
However, nearly 33 per cent of this comes from the informal sector.
Film
makers want the government to offer incentives to businesses and to adopt
regulatory stances that promote growth.
Already,
the government has passed regulations requiring that by June 2018, 60 per cent
of all content aired on television should be locally produced.
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