Double Tragedy: Free-to-Air Broadcasting and the CCK Draft Broadcast Regulations

I was watching KTN's Str8Up Live earlier today as DJ Kaytrixx and the other guy from Changing Times were going through their music video selections. In that conversation, it was intimated that the music video to J.Cole's single, Cant Get Enough could not get airplay because apparently there are ladies in bikinis in the said video and that would not please them "bosses upstairs.."! Also, everyone recalls the irritating silencing of tribe names on Churchill Live last season. NTV has taken this up a notch to censor out nearly entire sentences from ALL their shows and blocking out cleavages on their soap operas, including the ones deep in the night, well, except for TCM. Lately, KTN and other stations seem to be trying to catch up. This has left me wondering what the broadcast policy in Kenya is at the moment, because there has been a sudden upsurge of excessive censoring on television that is not based on any sound rationale at all.

Digging around led me to a 25-page document authored by the CCK called The Kenya Broadcasting Code of Practice for Free-To-Air Radio and Television. According to CCK the document is part of a bunch of regulations that are still under consultation, but from the conduct of TV stations (the morning radio filth aside), it seems like broadcasters have to comply with some of the rules already. Here are some of the highlights relevant to this post:

• Family Viewing Policy: All programmes broadcast between 5AM and 10PM should be suitable for family audiences as per the specification of the Kenya Film Censorship Board.
• Parental Guidance: Programmes rated PG by the Board must be aired after 10PM. All trailers and promotional material shown before the watershed time must comply with the family progamme policy.
• Individual Rights: unwarranted intrusion into an individual personal matters that have no bearing on public interest should be avoided.
• Vulgar Sex, Obscenity and Pornography: Explicit depiction of sexual arts, sexual perversions, nudity and pornography are prohibited.Offensive, obscene, blasphemous, profane and vulgar double meaning words and phrases are prohibited, even if only understood by the segment of the audience.

These regulations really do sound good on paper, but the moment you turn on your television screen, the double facepalms start immediately. Firstly who approves the rating system that our broadcasters use? Most of them are just totally shambolic with NTV taking the cake on this front: they are all over the place with ratings that seem guessed if not randomly picked. And they are many! Mara PG, mara GE mara U-10, mara U-13, mara U-16, mara U-18... Children's films or PG end up receiving U-18 ratings severally on Saturday nights. Cant there be a single system used across the board with the four basic guides/restrictions that is GE, PG, U-10 and U-18?

In addition, a censorship/broadcast regulation policy must be alive to the socio-cultural dynamics that prevail in the community they seek to censor. With the politically charged history of this country, I laud the strict rules against incitement on political or ethnic grounds. However the regulators had no idea how far incitement extends when they censored the ethnic jokes on Churchill Live much to the chagrin of the public, who firstly have a peculiar endearment to that show to take everything said in its duration with a light touch.

The regulators must also be wary not to cross the into the blurry borderline between law and morality. I know a lot of these guidelines are geared towards protection of kids from all that they perceive is filthy and immoral. Have those folks on the Censorship/Classification Board checked on what their kids have been up to lately, outside in the estates, with other "innocent" children while they are at work? This video below clearly illustrates the state of mind of the modern Kenyan child:



And when they return from work, what do they do in terms of "parental guidance"? Very few parents even know what that entails. While these regulators are at work (prolly watching a few steamy movies then counting the number of "fucks, shits, and hells" used), the kids return home to the house-helps who are fixated on the soap operas that are on all TV stations virtually all day and night. The kids absorb these with relish and voila, push comes to shove and sexual debuts go lower than the shocking 12 years of age. Besides, all sorts of adult-oriented shows and films are on DVD sale virtually everywhere for only 50 bob and for all to buy, kids included.

The net result is a paranoid system that is hell-bent on protecting children who need to be protected from themselves and hardly the TV screen. It holds adult audiences ransom and subjects them to substandard mind-numbing shows that are made worse by censoring out words that are extremely commonplace even past the so-called watershed hours. The other insulting excuse for blatant censorship is that those who want adult-themed shows had better, go and acquire pay-TV. This is a direct contradiction to the preamble of these regulations that envision fair, representative broadcasting to all even those who CANNOT AFFORD pay-TV!!!

Local content producers are also severely restrained when it comes to the sort of productions they can come up with, so that they do not get thrown off prime-time slots. Resultantly, many of these shows do not gain the viewership they deserve as they cannot make shows that are truly reflective of the Kenyan culture and deal with issues such as sex, homosexuality and violence, issues that really touch on public interest...

I think the broadcasters have a greater part to play in this. Fine, if there's a 5AM-10PM restriction, why not devote some time to adult-themed shows, instead of repeating those pathetic soap operas all the time? No wonder majority of the people above 18yrs of age hardly watch TV after 9PM news...

I wonder what happened to the days when KTN had Sopranos and NTV had The Wire after 11PM? What happened to the days of The Shield and Arrested Development on prime time slots? Its all very very, sad.

Let me not even get started with the irony that is morning radio shows... CCK indeed live in a bubble, and NTV live in the soapy water. Very pathetic indeed.

Temperature Rising

A few new, a few old tunes with lots of bass as the weekend approaches... notable mention: Brenmar's tune Temperature Rising at the end of this set has a hilarious video, check it out HERE..

As usual, if you feel this, you can download it HERE..

The Art of Self-Disgust

“Disgust is cheap. I asked for self-disgust…” _ Wole Soyinka (Madmen and Specialists)

They were on their fifth round of drinks, or was it the sixth? Keeping count didn’t matter anyway… what mattered then is that everyone was feeling a whole lot better and cockier.

“Hey, hey, I got another one, wanna hear it?” he asked.

“I hope its not another one of those Knock Knock jokes”, she took another sip from her wine glass.

A playful smile formed on his face, followed closely by a doubtful frown.

“Ah, never mind, should keep that one stuck in my head…”

“What? I can take dirty jokes too you know.”

“Its not dirty, just that - ”

“That what?”

“Hmm… nothing… Just not the type of jokes I want to be sharing with you… you know…”

Curiosity killed the cat, huh? Well, this was one hell of a cat and it was killing her. They had been drinking buddies a long time and somehow in the course of this ka-relationship she had somehow formed the impression that there was nothing he or the other guys in the crew could keep from her, especially under the influence. From drunk dials, to gory tales of sexual conquest to endless banter about the premier league, she always had talk time reserved for her in those discussions. It made her feel special; it made her secretly feel masculine – like she was one of them. There was no way she would let this one slip.

Three drinks later, he couldn’t take the pestering any longer. It wasn’t a big deal anyway. Once he started, it was like he had completely lost control of his tongue and there was no way he was going to stop any time soon. At some point he was even slurring and foaming at the mouth like those Uhuru park preachers.

“You know, you know, you know all my female friends on FB seem to be getting paged of late. My friends list is like a preggers mugshot. Shit violent…”

“Hahahaha… wait … ahahahaha. Oh my gosh…”

“That shit’s in fashion you know… they – they try- they trying to give ‘fashionably late’ a whole new meaning!”

“Oh my gosh, meanie…”

“What? It’s a beautiful thing…fuck yeah, it is!!!”

And he went on and on and on. Some of the most original pregnant jokes of the century came out of that inebriated mouth. Pity, the days of having slaves following you around writing down every word that came out of your mouth a la Cesarian Rome were over and done. She must have squealed “Oh my gosh” a hundred times in between spilling her drink, choking herself and clutching at her poor ribs from the laughter. He only stopped much later, when the pressure on his bladder started sending saner nerve impulses to his brain.

“Oh my gosh, you are an ugly soul… UGLY!!! I hate you!!”

“What? I told you they were unsuitable… that’s what you get for wanting to read people’s minds…”

“No. I mean, gosh… what is wrong with you??? That's no excuse, don't I look like a woman to you?”

"What? So now you wanna throw a bra at me?"

"No, I'd like to shove a couple of my eggs down that sorry cock of yours right down to your balls, fancy having twin babies dangling on your ball sac, you ugly soul! What do you know about what it feels like to be a woman?"

"No, i have no idea, but women have never been men a single day of their lives and they are always talking about what a real man is and what a real man is not..."

"Fuck you, smart ass..."

“Ah, no, fuck you! And what is wrong with you? If I’m not wrong, you were the one who almost pissed herself laughing, no? Speaking of piss, I gotta take one myself. Now, if you will excuse me…”

He got up and hurried towards the gents. Halfway there he walked back to her.

“You must admit, it was one funny outburst, huh?”

She paused to reflect and smiled, “Yeah, it was…”

“Woman, you are an ugly soul, damnit… UGLY!!!”

“Yeah, I guess I am…”

"That is why, I love you so..."

"Awwww... Puhleease, spare me the flattery, son..."

* * *

Society is a complex network even in its most basic form. The concept of the social network presents even more complex challenges for us. Its dynamics are like a piece of modern art. It is beautifully ugly – so ugly, you simply cannot take your eyes off the goddamn thing. It is beautiful in the ugliest ways, ways that could bring tears to your eyes. You are placed in a rare position as both the artist and consumer of the art. Appreciation and disgust come hand in hand, and in real time too. In pursuit of perfecting this art, part of what make us human will have to occupy second fiddle including the universal notions of common sense and human dignity themselves. That is how it is, no more no less. The more you realise that your work is a mere pixel in the whole damn painting, the less you would want to interpret it. Come to think of it, and in as much as I hate to admit it, this virtual world reveals more about ourselves than face to face without the ‘book’ ever will…

In this world, there is no defence known as “fun”, “its never that serious” or “X started it”…

In this world, there is no way you are not just as fucked up as the next person…

In this world, there is no room for disgust, only self-disgust...