MCK to host 30 Media Councils in May conference

The  Media Council of Kenya will host over thirty heads of Media Councils from across the 19th Annual General Meeting of the World Association of Press Councils (WAPC).

According to a statement by the Media Council of Kenya, the meeting that will be in Nairobi on May 3rd – 8th, 2022 will coincide with the commemoration of this year’s World Press Freedom Day which is marked every 3rd May globally.

As a public institution mandated to regulate the media industry in Kenya, the Media Council of Kenya is a member of the WAPC where its Chief Executive Officer David Omwoyo currently sits as the second Vice President, a position he has held for the last three years.

Dr Sule Aker of the Cyprus Turkish Press Council currently heads the Association.

“MCK’s membership in the Association is a strategic opportunity for the Council to articulate issues affecting media freedom,  exchange best practices and advocate for free media regionally”, noted MCK CEO Omwoyo.

Besides Kenya, the East and South Africa regions are represented in the WAPC by Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe press council’s.

The statement notes that, the May 2022 engagement will be the first physical meeting to be held by the WAPC after the Covid-19 outbreak, with the last being held in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2019.

Members will hold discussions on strategy and action plans for Media industry post Covid-19. 

During the meeting, new members that are likely to be co-opted include South Africa, Namibia, Ethiopia and Rwanda press councils. 

Other Media councils expected at the meeting include Turkey, Kosovo,Cyprus India, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Sri-Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar.

The WAPC is an umbrella organisation of Press Councils and similar bodies committed to championing the cause of free speech and freedom of a responsible press.

It is a universal acknowledgement of the need for a free and unrestricted flow of information beyond the boundaries with the media embracing the role of a public trust that is subjected to only one restriction- the internal or self-regulation.

It was initiated in 1989 at First International Conference of Press Councils and Similar Bodies at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, organised under the sponsorship of UNESCO National Association, Malaysia.