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The 2007-2008 election violence in Kenya left more than 1,200 people dead and over half a million internally displaced. There were serious human rights violations, including freedom of movement, freedom of assembly and opinion. A Commission of Inquiry set to investigate the violence has attributed the conflict to unresolved historical grievances. But, the government and international agencies blame some sections of the media for inflaming the violence and ethnic hatred among Kenyans. The media is one of the most vibrant institutions in Kenya. It is vocal on matters of public interest, including political and socio-economic developments. In so far, much has been written on the role of the media in the conflict, but little, on their role in peace-building. Yet, peace-building remains a human rights concern locally and internationally. This thesis looks at how press freedom was used to either enhance conflict or build peace, as exemplified in the mentioned case. It also examines the role of the media as an agenda setter for human rights. This role provides a theoretical assumption of the responsibility of the media in preserving rights and freedoms. I argue that the media agenda to promote human rights can only be achieved within an independent media, guarded by working legislations and effective monitoring systems.

A series of UN peace-building missions have taken the leading role in reconstructing the rule of law in East Timor, most notably through the hybridised Special Panels trials from 2000 to 2005 and ongoing hybridised participation in prosecution and judging in the years since then. While UN peace-building doctrine place great faith in transfusions of international expertise in the institutions of justice to secure their autonomy, the experience in East Timor has been one of consistent governmental interference to restrain politically sensitive prosecutions and systematic pardon of those convicted of committing crimes of political violence. Beginning with the thwarted prosecution of Indonesian generals accused of crimes against humanity before the Special Panels, and moving on to consider episodes of prosecutorial interference and systematic pardon in trials dealing with crimes committed during serious civil unrest in 2006 and attempted assassinations of the President and Prime Minister in 2008, this article examines the UN's ongoing failure to secure the autonomy of the judicial institutions it is mandated to assist. It cites a preoccupation on the part of the UN with the institutional aspects of the rule of law which has been emphasised at the expense of the more contentious cultural and behavioural aspects of the rule of law at a political level which are essential if the institutions of justice are to operate independently.