Minister Khatib, you are wrong
 
2006-12-23 08:54:11
By Pascal Shao

	Minister for Information, Culture and Sports, Mohamed Seif Khatib.

Media stakeholders have said that a statement made by the Minister for Information, Culture and Sports, Mohamed Seif Khatib, that the draft Freedom of Information Bill was rejected by media owners, is incorrect.

On the contrary, it was the National General Convention of the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), and not the media owners, which rejected the draft bill.

The minister had made the statement in Dodoma while launching the new government owned Kiswahili newspaper, Habari Leo.

Reading an official statement yesterday in Dar es Salaam on behalf of the Convention, MCT Executive Secretary Antony Ngaiza said the National General Convention was composed of 23 press clubs, media owners, leaders of journalists’ associations and the civil society, who had unanimously rejected the proposed bill.

The Convention had resolved that the government should give room to media stakeholders and members of the public to debate the proposals.

”In our unity, we have been disappointed and stunned by the minister’s statement, which is trying to force the draft bill to be tabled to Parliament,” he said.

Ngaiza said the draft bill was rejected because it had placed a lot of hindrances that made it difficult to access information and that the minister responsible was going to have excessive legal authority which he could exercise to suppress news.

He added that the draft bill would kill the Media Council of Tanzania, which was set up through media stakeholders’ efforts and had already done a commendable job such that it was recognized both nationally and internationally.

The statement further stated that the proposed statute would stall the development of Tanzanian people, as a result, the dream of quality life for every Tanzanian was going to turn into a ”doomsday for Tanzanians.”

”On those grounds, we, the media industry stakeholders, stick to our stand that we reject the draft bill as it undermines freedom of the press in our country and denies the public of the right to get information,” read the document.

He said that the stakeholders were optimistic that wisdom would prevail on the government so that it would allow all stakeholders in media industry, including members of the public, and those of the civil society, to undertake a thorough debate so that the draft bill would be of national interest.

Speaking at the same occasion, the Media Council President, Professor Issa Shivji, said that the minister’s statement was an individual opinion of a citizen who happened to be a minister. ”This is not a government statement,” he said.

He added that news dissemination was not only important to the public but also to the country’s leaders.

Professor Shivji said that the right to information was enshrined in Article 18 (1) of the Constitution.

”According to the Constitution, the people have the right to information and not just Members of Parliament.

When we say that the draft bill is not suitable for us, it is our right…. Even if the laws are being passed by the parliament, the public has a right to say no,” he said.

He said that during the draft bill had gone against public expectations of their rights being further extended.

It had instead been tightened such that it has repeated even the sections that the Nyalali Commission had categorized as not good.

Union of Tanzania Press Clubs executive director Abubakar Karsani said that once the bill was passed into law, all programmes on poverty eradication would not bear fruit as the people were the ones who could gauge the performance.

”This bill bids farewell to the county’s poverty reduction strategies,” he said.

Speaking in Dodoma, Minister Seif Khatib was quoted as saying that media owners had no right to reject a bill, but what they could do was simply to voice their opinion. He added it was only MPs who could throw out a bill.

On the contrary, President Jakaya Kikwete, during a recent exclusive interview with The Guardian, when responding to a question related to fears that the new media bill would suppress press freedom, said: ”If you (journalists) have basic arguments on the bill, the government has all reasons to listen to you.

I think that the most important thing is that the media must be free in discharging its duties, it should be vibrant and one that abides by ethics.”

Participants to the National General Convention of the MCT had called on the government not to table the draft bill on Freedom of Information to Parliament before it is adequately and rigorously debated by the public.

Meanwhile, Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) intends to translate the draft bill into Kiswahili.

Both English and Kiswahili versions will posted on the council’s website.

• SOURCE: Guardian