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Seek security of tenure, Shivji tells journos.
2006-05-06 09:11:54
By Paul Mallimbo, PST, Bagamoyo
The president of the Media Council of Tanzania, Prof Issa Shivji, has said that media professionals should struggle for editorial independence and security of tenure of office, the kind that judges enjoy.
Prof Shivji said media professionals have been fighting for freedom of the Press for a long time, but time had come for them to fight for editorial independence from owners, donors and advertisers.
He lamented that African media pander to the whims of owners and the business community, not to speak of the state.
Prof Shivji made the remarks when he closed a two-day Regional Conference for Press/Media Councils in Eastern and Southern Africa that was held at Bagamoyo this week.
He said the Press should be part of the civil society and should not only fight for freedom and independence, but also freedom from the dominant forces of the civil society.
’Personally, I don’t like the analogy of the Press being referred to as the Fourth Estate. The Press should not be at all part of the state. It is part of the civil society,’ he noted.
Prof Shivji said that one of the issues of immediate concern to him was how Tanzania Media Council could be free and independent if it still depended on the so-called donors for funding.
’I talked about fighting against state monopoly. But with liberalisation, ’marketisation’ and privatisation, we are realising that there are other types of monopolies – corporate monopolies,’ he said.
Prof Shivji emphasised that the media should refuse to be held hostage or pander to the whims of the owners or the state.
The conference also demanded that the charges against journalists who have been forced to flee into exile be dropped to allow them to rejoin their families at home without the threat of retribution from the state.
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