America reacts over ban on newspapers

Outgoing US ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt meets with media heads in Dar es Salaam yesterday. PHOTO | COURTESY 

By Songa wa Songa and Polycarp Machira The Citizen Reporters

Posted  Friday, October 4  2013 at  07:54

In Summary

Outgoing US ambassador says in a democratic society, freedom of the press is paramount as media has a role and responsibility to disseminate information to help people make informed judgments

Dar es Salaam. Outgoing US ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt has described the decision by the government to suspend two daily newspapers Mwananchi and Mtanzania as counter to democracy whose central tenet is freedom of the press.

As the US envoy expressed his concern, new details emerged yesterday on how the government plans to further curtail freedom of the press. The government plans to table in next month’s parliamentary sitting a  Written Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill  that seeks to increase fines for various offences committed by the media, including incitement and hate speech and publishing false statements, to Sh5 million from Sh150,000.

But speaking at a farewell media roundtable in the city yesterday, Mr Lenhardt, who is winding up his four-year tour of duty to Tanzania, said in a democratic society, freedom of the press is paramount as media has a role and responsibility to disseminate information to help people make informed judgments.

“So, to shut down a press is to my way of thinking counter to that objective,” he said.

Journalists have a part to play as well, he warned, by being professional—reporting the facts without bias, being as accurate as possible and doing it in a timely manner must not be compromised.

“In every situation there are two sides to the coin but I do not like what has happened,” the diplomat said: “And I hope that will be rectified in some way,”

He continued: “I am not at all happy with the notion of suspending media houses in this case press organisations because I would hope that as I said, it is freedom of the press.”

On Friday last week the government suspended Mwananchi and Mtanzania for 14 and 90 days respectively, and on Tuesday this week the government extended the sanction to Mwananchi website.

On Saturday last week, the Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) management was notified by Mwananchi readers that the Director of Tanzania Information Services, Mr Assah Mwambene, had announced on Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation that the newspaper had been banned for 14 days. Mr Mwambene was reported to have said that the newspaper had been banned for publishing seditious news contrary to section 25(1) of the Newspaper Act CAP 229 of 1976.

According to the Maelezo statement, Mwananchi had been banned for the following reasons:

On July 17, the newspaper published a story on new salaries for public servants which the government considered a secret that was not to be published by the media.

The story was not published on July 17 but July 27.

On August 17, Mwananchi published a story with the headline Waislam wasali chini ya ulinzi mkali wa polisi (Muslims pray under tight police guard) which was accompanied by a picture showing policemen on patrol with a dog. Maelezo construed this as a story that would incite Muslims to hate the government.

But, MCL’s position is that both stories weren’t seditious as claimed by the government. (Read a separate statement from MCL on Page 4)

Ambassador Lenhardt who is leaving the country next week said he hoped that the Newspaper Act 1976 that allows information minister to suspend and even ban publications will be remedied in the new constitution.

The Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) yesterday called on media stakeholders to join forces in pushing for the review of the proposed Bill, saying it is there to create more chaos instead of solving existing problems.

Speaking to journalists at the party headquarters in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the party’s director of Information and Publicity, Mr John Mnyika, said the government should take the Bill to Parliament for amendment, remove the contentious clauses or else it will be forced to do so. “These sections will kill media completely as we all know that a cross section of Tanzanian media is financially struggling and imposing such heavy fines would kill them,” he said.

He said it was wrong for the government to come up with such clauses at a time when it is the same government which always falsely accuses the media of violating the laws.

According to Mr Mnyika, the Bill published in the government gazette on 28th August 2013, contains a lot of issues that stakeholders should strongly condemn.

“ We want bad sections of the Bill to be changed completely, reduce the fine and do away with the  Newspaper Act 1976 failure of which we will mobilise legislators against it,” he noted.

Meanwhile the International Press Institute and the Tanzania Editors Forum yesterday expressed growing concern about press freedom in Tanzania following a government order suspending two newspapers in the country.

  TEF’s Secretary Neville Meena said it was wrong for the government to thrash principals of natural justice, by turning into a prosecutor and the dispenser of justice.

“We also urge the judiciary to hear a case filed in 2009 challenging the Newspaper Act as unconstitutional. Why is it that the case has not had its day in court?” Mr Meena queried in a statement released yesterday.

 IPI, the Austria-based organisation asked President Jakaya Kikwete and Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda to consider reversing the suspensions and overhaul the country’s Draconian Newspaper Act of 1976.

 IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said the government’s action violates Tanzania’s own constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression and access to information.  “We see an unsettling trend in Tanzania, beginning with the closure of MwanaHalisi last year, of Tanzanian authorities imposing outdated and odious laws to block information from reaching citizens,” Ms McKenzie said.

SOURCE: THE CITIZEN