The Aga Khan pledges his commitment to free media

Daily Nation Kenya - The Aga Khan on Thursday pledged to uphold free media. Speaking at the Pan Africa Media Conference in Nairobi, the founder of the Nation Media Group gave a firm commitment to remain focused on independent news coverage. He told the conference that he started Nation in 1960 with the belief that newly independent African nations would thrive well where there was an independent media. He holds the same belief for the future.

“News media that sought independence, generally speaking, had a difficult life. One of them was the now defunct British newspaper, theNews Chronicle, edited by the late Michael Curtis, who later played a central role in the Nation story. With him, we believed that the tradition of non-aligned newspapers was the most appropriate for Africa. We still believe that today,” said the Aga Khan.

He sought to explain to those present — including President Kibaki, Rwanda President Paul Kagame, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka and a host of delegates — the difficulty of preserving independence as he promised to stay the path.

“It has not always been easy to explain this role — to share our understanding that independence from parties, or interest groups or governments should not and does not mean some sort of reflexive opposition to them. Not having a special agenda does not imply some counter-agenda. Being independent is not the same as being oppositional,” he said.

“Truly independent media cannot be predictably partisan, narrowly politicised, nor superficially personalised. Journalistic shortcomings cannot be disguised behind political or partisan agendas. So, the idea of ‘best practice’ became a second NMG goal: to try to identify, educate and harness the best media talent we could find.”

The Aga Khan said media freedom is increasingly under threat globally and requires to be watched continuously. “For every nation that moves forward in terms of press freedom, two nations are said to be slipping backward,” he said, adding: “But let me sound a word of caution. Freedom, in any area of human activity does not mean the moral licence to abuse that freedom.”

President Kibaki told delegates that the government was committed to media freedom and cited the increased number of media outlets established in the last seven years.