 All right, fantastic. Welcome back. This right here is one in the morning. Many thanks for hanging up with us today. Being entrepreneurship Tuesday, we are switching gears a little bit. We're going to talk about the current state of the Kenyan media, especially this year for 2023, which way forward? Of course, there's been a lot of changes in there and there's a lot of changes that we need to embrace, especially when it comes to this year in terms of programming. And then we also had the issue of the accreditation of journalists, some of the press council being recalled, are being recalled. In fact, it's now a directive for all journalists to go and extract or get the new press cuts that have also a QR bar code to enable healthy journalism. And joining us live in this conversation, he is director and also media training and development at media council of Kenya, Mr. Victor Buire and just a brief introduction of him. He is the director as well and training development at media council of Kenya, like I said, and in addition, he provides strategic advice to the MCK on delivering on its constitutional mandate. He also oversees the media development initiatives at the media council of Kenya. He has over 20 years experience in journalism. Imagine that media training as well and management spanning a public private and non governmental sector. And lastly, he has also served as a task force member appointed by the cabinet secretary for ICT and reviewing the media policy for the country. He has also represented the council to UNESCO and annual general meeting in Paris as a member of the expert committee on communication and information under the Kenya National Commission on UNESCO. That is Mr. Victor Buire joining us live in studio. Good morning to you. Nice to meet you once again. Pleasure. Exactly. Welcome. Happy new year as well. Happy new year, Brian. All right. Now let's get straight up into it. Of course, you know, recently we've had the issue of being a journalist being recalled to actually get accredited again. Of course, the new press gets and I love the fact that you had a sample will show us some of the features of it. Why is it necessary, especially this 2023, to have that going on? Thanks, Brian. One, journalism is a profession and an industry, yet people have continuously treated journalism as by the way and that has created part of the problem. Journalism and the media has a very big role in national development. It shapes the national agenda. It says, I mean, but we continuously think journalism is an extractive industry where you start a radio or TV station to get some little money, go and buy some house in Rwanda or big vehicles. Don't pay your staff and run away. That's not the industry we're talking about. As I mentioned to you, journalism is nearly a nine billion industry. Look at entertainment, look at advertising. It's a huge industry that creates employment. For example, at a very bare minimum, Kenya has nearly 200 radio stations, 135 TV stations, over 100 print publications, over 2,000 blogs. It's a huge, huge market in terms of creating employment. But you start treating that industry as a by the way. Then you miss it. How many people are employed in the media? Look at wealth creation that comes through media houses. Look at Pricewaterhouse reports. Last year, how much money? It's nearly nine billion the industry created. Now, media houses pay taxes in a very big way through the various media houses are giving livelihoods to musicians, artists, journalists, advertisers, and there are designers and the rest. But we continuously look at an industry as people who just come here to record and play and we miss the whole point. Unlike before, journalism is now a profession. We now have PhDs in our newsrooms, people at a PhD level in the newsroom, including KBC. So if you are looking at that level of expertise in an industry, but you want to treat them as 1972, when journalists were putting on a T-shirt and jeans started and just moving all over, then you miss the whole point. How much does it take you to train somebody to that level? The level of experience in KBC alone, for example, in staff training is how much? But you want to treat such an industry as just and you want to make people pay, work without paying, you don't want to pay them overtime, you don't want people working in horrible conditions, then you are missing the whole point because in any industry or factory, the biggest asset is the human resource. So once you mistreat the human resource, the journalist, then these things we talk about content is the king, we'll have good programs. Who will do the program? The robots is the people. So people must be treated well and appreciated for them to do those good programs. And that's why we are saying that 2023 media must, people must relook at how we have treated media and where we, the issue of human rights in the media becomes very critical. You must respect the labor rights of the journalists and other employees in that industry who then become motivated and they give more because journalism is a creative art. You don't read everything in textbooks like maths, which has fixed formulas in journalism is more practical and creative. Now a person brand who has not been paid for six months, how will he be creative? The guy is struggling to pay rent and when will he be creative? So we must relook at how do we motivate the bigger asset we have in journalism? Who are the journalists before we even talk about equipment? So that's why we are talking about we must relook the 2023, we must relook. And unlike the caveat manner in which people have looked at people, we have said among other things, obviously the recalling of the 2,400 cards is just one of the many things. Why the sudden recalling? One we notice the industry feels accreditation on the problem. There's a big problem, one of quacks, people who misrepresent themselves as journalists or media practitioners and extort from people dangerously in the hotels, in events and others. While us as the media council, we know the problem is not accreditation, but the industry still feels the accreditation is a problem. But I'll tell you that the accreditation is not a problem. It's purely one agalibo public, people who are also disparate to be covered by the media so that even when they are lied to, you carry a microphone or a recorder which has no even battery, is not working, but you put it in front of a guy, he's just talking about and he will pay you money thinking you will get his historic cover. They don't even ask whether you work as a journalist, whether that recorder is working. There are so many disparate people there who then become so easily conned. So that's why we're introducing easy feature for if somebody told you he's a journalist, you can quickly using your phone confirm. So we have introduced a bar code. So if somebody comes to you and says he's a journalist, just ask your media council card. It has a bar, it has a QR code here. This is mine. Yes, I'm journalist 01 in Kenya. Not that I'm the best journalist, but I work at the council, so I got it fast. So once somebody gives you this card, just go to a Google and it takes scan. It has a QR code. Yes, it's a QR code here. So it will show where you work, if you are a journalist or if you are a quack. So that's just one. But do you feel like that might endanger even the journalists? For example, is it a stranger or somebody who has their own interests, they're scanning your details, they'll have them and use it against you? From a very safe point of view, you even brand, if you go to an event, do you just give your ID to anybody who asks for it? Of course not. I mean not. So again, that also becomes to your sensitivities that as a journalist, you cannot just give your card to any Tomohara and Dick in the streets. It must be an event. It must be somebody telling you this is the governor's team or this is the event by the CS and their team is asking for your card. So you don't just go on throwing your card to everybody. So we also want a situation where journalists are responsible. They can also ascertain because I've seen some of the advice, obviously these are lies and sorry that but you are, I mean you went through your dad when you lost your dad, then somebody just picked somebody and gone. So as you throw your card to everybody, how safe are you? So journalists must also be safe in the sense that who are, which are functioned. Somebody that don't just tell you we have an event in blue and you run there. You must also do, because there are a lot of on our subs, everybody saying there's an event that's in events. Some of those events have not even a contact person. They even just look suspicious from the word go. So we are also throwing and that's the discussion I had with you before we came here. Also in fake news, you know, people profiling fake news. And public interest. Are we covering events of public interest or are we when just you hear the so-and-so politician having an event you run there because of the money, the blue envelope, not because of the story. So we're also throwing it back to you as a journalist that once you get an universe to an event, you also assess the public value in that story we are going to cover. So that is not just all over everybody, the people running all over, saying that and that's how we have lost credibility because of the fake one we start with the pseudo journalists or the people who masquerade who are purely poised as journalists and conned from people. Then we go to the fake information we're saying means information and propaganda and that's how trust in journalism is going though. And for us to restore that public trust, we must one identify and work with genuine journalists. So media council and others must have a very serious public outreach program to help people understand who is a journalist. Not everybody who works with the microphone or a recorder is a journalist. Many of those people are quacks and just criminals who are making money. So that's one of the programs of restoring the card. We have started a public outreach which we live and use KBC here to help people understand how do you identify a genuine journalist. We have already reached out to hotels. This QR code will be introduced there and once you go any hotel will not admit anybody just for the mere fact that you have mentioned you are a journalist. We have reached out to PRSK, the association of event organizers in Kenya. We are already working with DCI and police. So it's going to be very rough and if you are a journalist don't worry. If you are a journalist, if a genuine journalist is not worried but if you are a quack or have been posting it's going to be difficult.