BY THE GUARDIAN REPORTER
2nd October 2013
A statement circulated to the media yesterday said that the banned papers –‘Mwananchi’ and ‘Mtanzania’ –have started contravening Government Notice No.333 of September 27, 2013 which prohibited them to engage in any form of publication.
“I would like the public to know that the government followed all the recommended procedures before it suspended ‘Mwananchi’ and ‘Mtanzania’ for two weeks and three months respectively. The procedures included listening to the concerned parties,” the Director of Information services, Assah Mwambene said, adding: “But contrary to Government Notice No.333, we have seen that ‘Mwananchi’ is continuing to publish stories on its website. We have written the paper to stop doing so and if they continue, we shall take even more unforgiving measures.”
The government said that ‘Mwananchi’ published a story titled: ‘Mishahara Mipya Serikalini 2013,’ literally meaning ‘New Government Salaries 2013,’ saying the information was “embargoed material,” – only meant for government reference, and not for public consumption.
It also said that on August 17, 2013 in issue No. 4774, the tabloid published a story with a headline: ‘Waislamu wasali chini ya ulinzi mkali’ which literally means ‘Muslims pray under tight security’.
According to the government notice, the story was illustrated by a picture of a furious dog, implying that the police used dogs to patrol the mosque at which the Muslims were conducting prayers.
For their part, New Habari Cooperation 2006, who are publishers of ‘Mtanzania’ – have now started publishing one of its weekly newspapers ‘Rai’ on daily basis since September 29, 2013 without the Newspapers’ Registrar’s permission, Mwambene said.
The government has therefore ordered ‘Rai’ to revert to its scheduled weekly production as in past until directed otherwise.
‘Mtanzania’ is said to have published a story in its issue number 7262of March 20, 2013 with a headline: ‘Urais wa damu’, literally meaning ‘Presidency through bloodshed’ and another ‘Mapinduzi hayaepukiki’, literally meaning ‘Revolution is inevitable’ in its June 12, 2013 edition, issue No. 7344.
For his part, New Habari Corporation 2006 Group Managing Editor Absalom Kibanda, expressed serious disappointment with the Director of Information Services’ statement.
He said the decision to run ‘Rai’ on daily or weekly basis solely lay on the firm’s discretion since the Newspapers’’ Registrar gave the company permission to do so in 1994.
“We have the permission with us and in addition some few days ago we wrote the Information Services Department to inform them of our resolve to run the tabloid on daily basis,” Kibanda said.
He added: “We are surprised to learn that the Director of Information Services claims that he never discussed anything with us before suspending publication of Mtanzania.”
“That is false. What I know of is that we apologised on ‘Presidency through bloodshed’ story after we realised that there were some slip-ups in it.”
Kibanda said as a company they plan to meet President Jakaya Kikwete to inform him about the challenges facing the media industry in the country.
Efforts to get comments of Mwanachi Communications Limited managing director Tido Mhando yesterday, proved futile as his mobile phone was out of reach and the firm’s land lines went unanswered.
On Monday a coalition comprising 50 human rights defenders in collaboration with Tanzania Media Owners Association (MOAT), Media Institute of Southern Africa Tanzania Chapter (Misa-Tan) and Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) made an appeal to the international community to help media and employees in the country grapple with frequent government bans.
The coalition said the news on the banning of the two tabloids had shocked the organisations in that the government has interfered with freedom of information which is a key pillar in good governance.
They said after thinking deeply and carefully over the matter, they decided to strongly condemn the government’s behaviour that often goes to as far as threatening and banning media institutions in the country.
Briefing journalists Tanzania Human Right Defenders Coalition (THRD-C) national coordinator Onesmo Olengurumwa said the government’s decision to ban the newspapers was an act meant to threaten ‘wananchi’, to create fear in society, and to silence human rights defenders as well as media institutions.
“The government is going against the Union Constitution, Act 18 and Articles 18 (1) and (2) and the Zanzibar Constitution of 1984 (2010 edition),”he said.
In a related development, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the decision by the government to suspend the two Kiswahili dailies on accusations of sedition.
CPJ’s statement made available to the media on Monday night said, Tanzanian authorities often rely on an arsenal of anti-media laws such as the 1976 Newspapers’ Act that allows the Information ministry wide discretionary powers to ban publications, according to its research.
"The government could have taken their grievances against ‘Mwananchi’ and ‘Mtanzania’ to the Media Council of Tanzania, an ombudsman, rather than summarily suspending the publications," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom Rhodes. "We call upon the respective authorities to unban the papers and to reform the laws that allow recurrent suspensions, which are not in line with international standards of press freedom."
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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