SECTOR 2 Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country minimally meets aspects of the indicator. 3 Country meets many aspects of indicator but progress may be too recent to judge. 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator. 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator and has been doing so over time. Average score: 2.7 (2005=4.0; 2007=2.9) 2.4 The editorial independence of print media published by a public authority is protected adequately against undue political interference Analysis Previously there was no print media by a public authority9. In August 2009, a weekly Kenya Today, was launched. It is published by the Department of Information of the Ministry of Information and Public Communications. The Editorial Director is the Director of Information and Public Communications in the Ministry. Contributions are mainly by the Kenya News Agency (KNA) in the Ministry. The weekly focuses on government activities especially those not widely covered by the privately-owned commercial media outlets. The Kenya News Agency is the main information collection agent of the Ministry of Information. It collects stories mainly from the rural areas. The KNA Press Office, based in Nairobi, serves as the communication and editorial centre for the reception, processing and dissemination of news to subscribers10. It is noteworthy that the brief of KNA is to collect ‘news’ from ‘rural’ areas. The Ministry of Information policy document states that the rural press offices are strategically located to ensure narrow-casting in the coverage of development news to enhance information flow at the grassroots level. The main consumer of KNA news is the KBC, the Kenya Times and Taifa Leo newspapers. Other media also subscribe to KNA for rural news. 9 There were no scores for this indicator in Media Barometer of 2005 panelists then felt that there was no print media published by public authority (defined as a state authority e.g. Ministry of Information) 10 Study by AfriMap on Public Broadcasting in Kenya (yet to be published). AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER KENYA 2009 29