Excerpt from report by state-owned KBC (Kenya Broadcasting Corporation) Radio on 30 September
[Presenter] The broadcasting organization, BBC, has been listed among the best international broadcasting stations, for now it has no match after spreading network to most developed countries. Kenya’s broadcasting organization, KBC, today hosted the director- general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, who spoke about how BBC has succeeded in attracting fans all over the world.
[Reporter] The name BBC is known in every house in this country and all over the world for the quality of its programmes and news. The organization is proud for being a good example in the broadcasting sector all over the world while its fans across Africa enjoy the quality of its programmes. However, the success achieved by the organizations can be reached. The director-general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, has said what is needed is a spirit of sacrifice and resources to reach the horizon.
[Thompson in English] The way people use media is changing. Once the BBC could reach millions of Kenyans just with short-wave radio. Both the KBC and BBC face the challenge of reaching out to new audiences and also using new technologies to get our content to audiences.
[Reporter] He said one of the biggest challenges to public broadcasters all over the world is how to sustain the independent opinions of editors and those of governments in power, a situation that makes it difficult to deny that the broadcasters are controlled by the government.
[Thompson] If you’ve got an emerging strong democracy with power- sharing and people from different perspectives having to work together, a strong, free media can play a very important part in strengthening democracy.
[Reporter] The managing director of KBC, David Waweru, stressed that all that depends on public opinion.
[Waweru in English] We are here to give objective reporting, public programming that is good for public consumption, family consumption. Yes, you might expect that there may be some pressure from here and there, but it is not pressure that would not come from the owners of a private radio station. [Passage omitted]
Originally published by KBC Radio, Nairobi, in Swahili 1600 30 Sep 08.
(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Africa. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.
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