Factors influencing compliance with the Watershed Period among broadcasters in Kenya

Abstract

The watershed period in broadcasting is used to indicate a time during which adult programs should not be broadcast. It constitutes a set of regulations for protecting children from the harm and offence that could be caused by exposure to adult programming. During this time, all programs broadcast should be suitable for family audiences, and adult programs should be broadcast at a later time of the night. In Kenya, reports from various sources have indicated that the watershed law are regularly breached especially among some of the largest broadcasting stations. The ministry of Information and Communications stated that it has been under public pressure to address inappropriate programming; the broadcast sector regulators have also raised alarm over the breaches to the law. This study sought to find out the factors influencing compliance with the watershed period laws among broadcasting stations in Kenya. The factors evaluated were the knowledge of the law, cost of compliance, enforcement of the law and the civil of society involvement through a survey conducted on a sample of licensed broadcasting television and radio stations within Nairobi and a sample of audiences through a ‘delivery and collection’ questionnaire. Statistics on enforcement of the law were collected from the watershed regulators Kenya Films Classification Board (KFCB). The study was undertaken to find out ways of improving compliance with the watershed period laws.

Data obtained from the respondents was coded and analyzed using PSPP software which is an open source program for statistical analysis of sampled data and gives a comparative analysis of data from questionnaires. Correlation, t-test and chi square tests were performed on the data. Pearson Correlation coefficient was used to determine the direction and strength of the relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variables. A compliance score for each of the broadcasting stations was sought from the audiences and the broadcasters were divided into two groups, - those that had high compliance scores and those that had low compliance scores. The t-test analysis was used to assess whether the means of two groups- the ones that scored high compliance and low compliance were statistically different for each variable. Two factors were found to have a significant influence on compliance, these were the cost of compliance and enforcement of the law, while two factors were found not to significantly influence compliance, these are knowledge of the law and civil society involvement. The cost of compliance was found to have a negative correlation to compliance with the watershed law, when the cost of compliance went up, the level of compliance dropped.

In order to improve the level of compliance with the watershed period among broadcasters, measures to curtail the cost of compliance were recommended, these costs may be mitigated by giving financial rewards for levels of high compliance attained by broadcasters, ensuring that the benefits obtained from non-compliance do not exceed the penalties for non-compliance, and subsidizing the licensing fees for broadcasters who attain high compliance levels. Recommendations on how to improve compliance through enforcement of the law is to include a wider variety of enforcement strategies apart from the persuasion and warning letters issued to broadcasters who did not comply, these are negative publicity to the stations that regularly breach the laws, while formal sanctions include imposing of fines and license revocations/restrictions. The study revealed that monitoring and inspections by the regulatory authority Kenya Films Classification Board was only performed on a few media houses, this was because the regulatory authority lacked the resources to monitor and inspect a large number of broadcasters. This brought about a low probability of detection and enforcement. Empowering the regulatory authority was recommended in order to be able to perform their duties effectively as enforcement will not act as a deterrent if the broadcasting stations do not believe that noncompliance is likely to be discovered or punished.