The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has appealed to authorities in Kenyan to end the 11-day ban on live news reports, the federation said in a statement made available to Panapress in Nairobi, Wednesday. IFJ expressed concern that the ban was still in force even after the post-election violence had subsided. It said the ban was a violation of Kenyans’ fundamental right to have access to real time reports on the violence that erupted after President Mwai Kibaki was declared winner of the 27 December election. “This ban has been in place for more than a week as Kenya was rocked by terrible violence,” said Gabriel Baglo, Director of IFJ’s Africa office. “This ban is not the way to solve the crisis. We call on the Kenyan government to lift this ban immediately and allow journalists to work in total freedom and security,” he added. The government ordered all live radio and television broadcasts suspended indefinitely 30 December, after violent post-election protests raged in parts of the country, claiming more than 600 lives and displacing nearly half a million people. “Kenyans need prompt, independent and impartial information at this critical time,” said Omar Faruk Osman, the Secretary General of the Eastern Africa Journalists Association.
