SECTOR 2 Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 4.5 (2005 = n/a, 2007 = n/a, 2009 = 3.5) 2.10 Government does not use its power over the placement of advertisements as a means to interfere with editorial content. In the run-up to the 2007 elections, one of Kenya’s frontline dailies, The Standard, lost nearly all government advertising because the paper decided to side with the opposition. At the same time, its main rival Daily Nation, which sided with the incumbent government continued to receive a lot of government advertising. In a separate example, a government department recently decided to run a civic education campaign. Even though all newspapers were invited, only some were selected to run the advert. One publisher found out they had been cut out because of some unfriendly reporting on an official of the department in the past. The use of advertising to reward stewardship and punish unfriendly press cuts across Kenya’s public establishment. “When you publish a negative story about a parastatal, the company simply shifts advertising to your rival.” The state-run Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) receives the lion’s share of government adverts. Most adverts also went to Kenya Today, also state-run, when it still existed. 38 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER KENYA 2012