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Coalition clarifies public media proposal
2008-05-08 10:07:09
By Hannah Mwandoloma
The coalition for freedom of information and expression advocated yesterday the need to have state- owned media institutions governed by free boards that would be accountable to the National Assembly.
The pressure group voiced out the concern in Dar es Salaam through its secretary, Mohamed Tibanyendera, in response to remarks made by Information, Culture and Sports minister, George Mkuchika, regarding the stakeholders` recommendations on the proposed Media Services Bill, 2007.
According to his statement, Mkuchika had lambasted the Coalition, particularly the Stakeholders’ recommendations on the proposed Media Services Bill on Government ownership of media outlets.
The statement said: “He stated that it was preposterous for the stakeholders to recommend that the Government should not own media while even big western democracies like the United States and Britain owned them.
The Hon. Minister went on to say that the Coalition did not do research on the matter and added, we quote: ``No investigation, no right to speak,” apparently wanting to quote Chairman Mao Tse Tung’s famous quote “No research, no right to speak!``
Tibanyendera said for state-owned media houses like the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) to practise freedom of information and execute their duty of informing the public, they had to be controlled by the legislature, not the government.
``Minister Mkuchika misperceived our proposed Media Services Bill. Our aim is not to mum the government voice, only that the public has the right to information because funds used to run TBC are from tax payers. Someone from the government should not control what to report and what not to,`` he said.
Among the recommendations in Section Six of the coalition’s proposed Media Services Bill, members of the governing board would be nominated by a committee established under the Right to Information Act, 2008, and should not be employees of any public institutions or any department in the government.
The Bill also suggests that the board of the state-owned media institution should not be involved in
any politics and party interests and should not compete with private media in getting advertisements.
Tibanyendera said there was a need of having an Act that would put limitations in the operations of private and government or public media institutions, especially in competition over advertisements.
``TBC can keep running its services without adverts, something that is not possible for private owned media institutions. I think private media houses should be given priority, although it does not mean that TBC should not get adverts,`` Tibanyendera said.
The Coalition, comprising nine media and legal and human rights organisations, has handed over the first draft on the right to information and will soon submit a proposal on the Media Services Bill.
Dotto Ng’hwelo, the representative of the national Organisation for Legal Assistance (Nola), said the two proposed bills were not for the benefit of the Coalition, but for the good of all Tanzanians.
``This is why we have collected opinion from different people of different views from all over the country before sitting down and drafting the bills. So this is for all of us,`` Ng`hwelo said.
The Coalition comprises the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), the Media Owners Association of Tanzania (Moat), the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) and Media Institute of Southern Africa- Tanzania Chapter (Misatan).
Others are the Tanzania Media Women Association (Tamwa), Legal and Human Rights Center (LHRC), Tanganyika Law Society (TLS), National Organisation for Legal Assistance (Nola) and the Tanzania Legal Education Trust (Tanlet).
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