Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Free the Standard Presses

Kenyans, basking in the so genannte expansion of Press freedoms gained after the revolution of 2002 will hardly pay any attention to the increasing tightening of the screw on the Standard Group and its employees. Likely many of us already retain an animus against the East African Standard, the worn phrase being that it is a tabloid, given to an obsessive publication of untruths and hyperbole that is unbecoming for a newspaper of its influence or size. There will be a schadenfreude in many quarters as financial pressure is brought to bear on the Standard, especially among its competitors but the pain that is now the Standard's will soon be shared by all Kenya.

Amir Ibrahim, "We ignore the plight of the Standard at our peril; an unfettered Press is the very cornerstone of democratic government." Read more here.