Global press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders has sent a letter to Kenya's president, asking him not to sign a new media bill passed by the country's Parliament.

Under the law, journalists would be forced to reveal their sources, which the organisation told President Mwai Kibaki would lead to “disastrous consequences for Kenyan democracy.”

The organisation is opposed to the Bill due to the clause: “When a story includes unnamed parties who are not disclosed and the same becomes the subject of a legal tussle as to who is meant, then the editor shall be obliged to disclose the identity of the party or parties referred to.”

According to Reporters Without Borders, the clause “would mean that the confidentiality of sources, a fundamental and essential condition of press freedom, would no longer be guaranteed. Journalists are deprived of valuable information if their sources cannot be sure that their identity will be protected. When a society loses its transparency, the press can no longer fulfill its role of holding up a mirror to social and political reality, of reflecting the successes and failures of both its political leaders and its population. When this happens, a key component of the democratic checks and balances is destroyed.”

The organisation asked the President not to sign the Bill and send it back to Parliament to remove the offending clause.