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Media, police resolve to forge working relations
2006-06-28 09:25:09
By Wilson Kaigarula
The Police force and the media, which have traditionally had a somewhat frosty relationship, have resolved to let by-gones be by-gones, and forge, instead, a solid functional partnership.
The two entities, one a law enforcement organ and the other styled a public watchdog, will form a joint committee to chart areas of co-operation and monitor enforcement of their decisions.
This development was one of the major by-products of a get-together between the top Police brass led by IGP Saidi Mwema and media executives and editors in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
At the first-of-its-kind encounter, the Inspector-General of Police, who was accompanied by key lieutenants, said the law enforcers and the media must have a fish-and-water relationship.
Elaborating, Mwema noted that the police banks on the media for information related to public safety and security, and the media seeks from the law enforcement organ, information on the subject.
The police boss told the participants drawn from local public and private media outlets, that wananchi constituted the third player in the collective obligation of safeguarding and promoting public safety and security.
Wananchi, he explained, must volunteer tips on criminal elements in their midst, but they ought to be enlightened on legal procedures and the laws of the land.
Suspects could be locked up in police cells for a specific number of hours and be taken to court not beyond a given time-frame, and only courts could pronounce their guilt or innocence.
Mwema’s remarks were prompted by the tendency by wananchi of a given locality to celebrate when a perceived criminal was arrested on tip-off, only to be released not long afterwards.
The IGP remarked: ’’The people suspected that criminals bribed their way out of trouble.
But what actually happens is that the police need hard evidence to sustain a conviction in court, or set a suspect free. Should the police decide to charge the suspect, available evidence is sometimes too weak to yield the desired results, leading to acquittal.’’
He said the media can play an instrumental role in enlightening wananchi to base their tip-offs in adequately strong evidence and to be ready to submit it in court, to prevent otherwise real criminals going scot free.
Mwema nonetheless commended wananchi for numerous tips volunteered through the recently introduced mobile phone call system linking them with regional police commanders, which he said, had been highly beneficial.
The spirit, he stressed, should be upheld, but he cautioned against the mischievous tendency of some members of the public to use the system to settle scores with individuals they had misunderstandings with.
The areas the IGP cited as being critical and on which major attention would be focused, include a technologically facilitated approach in preventing and curbing crime, community policing, functional partnership with the media, the business community, the clergy and other sectors, an effective information gathering and retrieval system and a conducive working environment.
A proper and transparent recruitment system, plus improvement of the package for police cadre were also being addressed, said the police boss, one of the high-profile appointees in the new, nearly seven-month-old fourth-phase government of President Jakaya Kikwete.
Contributions from the floor included a call for relaxing the tight information dissemination system, inclusion of journalists in probe teams, registration of mobile phone lines to curb communication amongst criminal elements, tightening screws on rubber-stamp making, sensitizing low-ranking, field operatives against excessive use of force, and reacting to wananchi’s complaints aired through the media.
In his introductory remarks, the Executive Secretary of the Media Council of Tanzania, Anthony Ngaiza, had said that the get-together would not be a finger-pointing encounter on the frosty Police-Media relationship of the past.
He alluded to incidents like the police seizing or damaging the working tools of journalists, as well as assaulting some; plus some police officers being victims of media injustice.
The MCT, which organised the get-together, will be the media’s focal centre in the formation of the envisaged Police-Media partnership committee.
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