Kenya media didn't incite violence - report

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan media did not stoke post-election violence that killed 1,000 people, but it failed in its duty to report the bloodletting and political crisis in full, international media rights groups said on Thursday.

In the days after President Mwai Kibaki's disputed re-election at a December 27 poll, the government accused some vernacular radio stations of inciting ethnic unrest, and it imposed a delay on the live broadcast of television footage.

In a joint report, the rights groups said the authorities apparently feared a repeat of Rwanda's experience in 1994, when local media encouraged the killers in that country's genocide.

"The media in Africa does not always enthusiastically join in political crises by egging on murderous militants, as is often believed," Reporters Without Borders, International Media Support and Article 19 said in the report. "Kenya's press ... was a very good example of how it does not."

Editors and journalists tried to calm passions and promote reconciliation, it said. Both main newspapers ran the same front page editorial on January 3 entitled "Save our beloved country".

But the rights groups said many Kenyan reporters were too inexperienced to report such a crisis after decades of peace, and that they firmly chose restraint in their coverage.

"Editors and journalists were in a painful dilemma in the wake of the election and those the mission spoke to admitted the media clearly failed to do its job and fulfil its obligations."

The rights groups called on Kenya's government to adopt a less hostile attitude to the media, and they urged political parties to stop using radio stations to rally their supporters.

The Kenyan media should continue to review its performance, the groups said, and also fund staff training on investigative techniques and on how to operate in dangerous environments.