From: Abdalah Hamis

The Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC) recently completed a country Security Needs Assessment Survey for human rights NGOs, and for journalists being one of its thematic groups. According to our observations and what was recorded in the questionnaires that we distributed, media practitioners working for public media outlets are facing severe hatred from fractions of the citizenry or from supporters of certain political parties. These have led to commotions during political rallies and in situations where there is a tug of war between the citizenry in one hand and the government and investors on the other.

Given this situation this Coalition can foresee of worst scenario as this country is heading towards the 2015 General Elections. Incidents of throwing out, hurling stones and other forms of humiliations to this group are a common practice according to leaders of the 16 regional press clubs that were visited by this coalition.

Good examples to elucidate this scenario are in all regions which are a strong mainstay of the opposition, or which are endowed with rich reserves of natural resources. In this category regions like Mbeya, Iringa, Mtwara, Arusha, Kigoma and Dar es Salam have witnessed incidents of humiliating journalists like what happened to the TBC announcer Mr. Marin Hassani Marin when he was rounded up and harassed by sympathizers to the main Opposition party Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA), when it was launching the presidential campaigns of their candidate Dr Willibrod during the 2010 General Elections at the Jangwani grounds following a sudden blackout of the national television coverage. Happenings like this could hinder the work of media practitioners in public media outlets which are run on coffers money.

Any sudden blackout of this media outlets have always created a critical risky situation towards these journalists as the public at large tend to assume that it is the journalists who decides what should and should not be aired without any attempt to understand that reporters operate under orders from their managements and editors. Just to mention a few, a similar blackout of news from the TBC led to the unprecedented violence against the Mtwara based TBC reporter Kassimu Mikongolo in May this year, whose house was set ablaze by the irate mobs condemning him of having terminated this coverage deliberately.

Other similar incidents have also occurred in Arusha whereby TBC reporters have been sidelined starting from the Arumeru by-election, and in other rallies by the Opposition CHADEMA. This has forced them to use stories which have been collected by their colleagues from such rallies. Scribes from public outlets that have faced difficulties are Leonard Manga, Sechela Kongola, Khalfan Mshana and Ben Mwaipaja.

In Kigoma scribes in the public media outlets have a working confidence with leaders from all parties. However, citizens at large do not have trust with such outlets. In Kigoma TBC reporter Dotto Elias once faced a stiff challenge when at the CHADEMA rally when he was harassed by its sympathizers. In that occasion CHADEMA’s leaders came to his rescue. Gervas Msigwa also with TBC has been facing harassments whenever he attends CHADEMA’s rallies he escaped narrowly an attack during the by-election in the Lisabon Songea in 2011.

The current chairman of the Iringa Press Club Mr. Frank Leonard, who is employed by a public media outlet publisher of Daily News and Habari Leo, says there is a problem with politicians who fail to construe journalists as members of the community and that whatever they report reflect people’s wishes. In the 2010 General Election the ruling CCM top leadership had substituted its candidate who emerged an overall winner and replaced him with one who happened to their own choice. By reporting this discrepancy he was seen as an agent of the opposition so he was confronted by the CCM’s Green Guards on grounds that he was working against their party, at the end of the day the ruling party lost in the Iringa Urban Constituency.

Due to insecurity that these journalists are facing they have been forced at times to remove the TBC emblem and stickers from their cars and cameras in an attempt to rescue their lives. Vivid examples were when they were covering cases of Sheikh Ponda Issa Ponda Islamist leader and Willfred Rwakatare CHADEMA’s cadre. In these incidences George Kasembe and Nora Uledi almost lost their cameras to the angry mobs, let alone the booing from these fanatics of the two suspects.

The Source of these Commotions

• Our attempts to understand the core of this problem detected that the problem could be not with the scribes at the reportage level, but with their top management and editorial policies guiding their works. Journalists in this category always are at cross roads whenever they are engulfed in a tug of war between the citizenry and their government.

• Another challenge in a related situation is when some government functionaries like district and regional commissioners together with their district executive directors who choose to use such journalists as their public relations officers on an assumption those media outlets in electronic and print forms are their mouth pieces and of the government of the day and the ruling party.

• This has gone hand in hand with providing offices for them in shared public buildings between government administrators and journalists. This has always been at the peril of the journalists who must report in the tunes of the bigwigs whether it is through inducements and pay offs or the forced dictates.

• In another stance it is when public media outlets are sidelined by some institutions that do not trust public media outlets on grounds that they cannot get a fair coverage. This tells that some groups in the citizenry, political parties, or even public institutions do not have a trust towards public media outlets.

Under these circumstances journalists from the public media face a stiff challenge due to a failure to understand where they should stand and how their news coverage would be perceived by political fanatics, and whether their reportage will be against the expectations of the citizenry.

In an attempt to get a position of the TBC management recently there was a face to face discussion on the matter and TBC admitted some of these challenges such as those facing journalists in Mtwara, Arusha and Kigoma. Responding to the issues of being perceived as pro ruling party, the TBC denied the allegation saying that it is a non-political, non-biased entity and that it operates and it will continue to operate within its own guidance and editorial policy which moreover, guarantees fair coverage to all despite their political postions.

Solution to these Challenges

• On the question of security to journalists the TBC management admitted that there has been provision of training on security management but usually when General Elections approaches. This management acknowledged the importance of forming alliance with the THRDC in provision of security management trainings.

• There is a need to improve managerial capacity to the runners of these institutions so that they can get well acclimatized to the multiparty era in which this country is now operating.

• Also there is a need for a joint meeting between leaders of public media outlets, political parties, and the THRD-Coalition in order to underscore security of scribes in the forthcoming elections.

• This coalition urges all Tanzanians to stop harassing these journalists whenever they are in their routine coverage, and that any challenging matter should be reported to their management.

• We urge media practitioners in public institutions and their management to understand that public media should remain neutral and they should not have any kind of inclinations to either the government of the day or to any one political party.

• In order to maintain neutrality all offices of the public media outlets should be located outside the government buildings. Therefore the need to construct their own houses in order to get rid of an assumption that these are mere public relations officers of government leaders.

• We thank the TBC management for assisting Kassim Mikongolo during his trying moment including his subsequent transfer from Mtwara an area that could endanger his life. Moreover this Coalition will also assist him financially in order to meet some of the expenses that he has undergone following the tragedy.

Brought to you on behalf of the THRD-Coalition by:

Onesmo Olengurumwa
NATIONAL COORDINATOR THRD –COALITION