DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania
Tanzania’s media regulatory body, TCRA, will now require local media stations to seek government approval before broadcasting foreign content. Press freedom activists are calling on the regulations to be reviewed.
Ruling party Presidential candidate, John Magufuli |
Local stations in
Tanzania that are already airing programs from foreign international media
will now be required to apply for authorization and present the agreements to
the country's media regulatory body, according to Tanzania's
Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).
Tanzania says it will
not halt any of the broadcasts or the current agreements in place.
"This is a good
procedure that will enable TCRA to understand such agreements and successfully
oversee the sector in accordance with the available laws and
regulations," Andrew Kisaka, a TCRA official told DW.
The amendments —
regulating radio and television broadcasts — were issued after Radio
Free Africa aired a BBC interview with Tanzania's
opposition leader Tundu Lissu.
In the interview,
Lissu claimed that authorities had denied him a chance to pay his last respects
to former President Benjamin Mkapa, who was buried on July 29. The TCRA deemed
the interview misleading, as it did not seek clarification from a government
spokesperson.
"We are
approaching our presidential elections in October 2020. I would like to
believe that they would like to see how the media will comply with the
government line of thinking," Pili Mtambalike, a former regulations
and standards manager at the Media Council of Tanzania, told DW.
Mtambalike pointed to
how the media coverage of the various presidential candidates
collecting forms from the Electoral Commission differed widely when
compared to the ruling party's platform. "Of course there is a lot of
coverage for the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party. The opposition parties
have been a little bit short-changed," Mtambalike said.
Tanzania ranks 124 out
of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without
Borders.
Back in 2016, Tanzania
had a law named the Media Services Act. For Mtambalike, it was a very
problematic legislation. "People in the media went to court and, later,
the East African Court of Justice struck out some sections of the Act because
they went against the East African Community's regulations."
The Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ), said it was aware of the new two amendments to
regulations which are very important to the press freedom environment.
"These are the 2018 online content regulations which were already
restrictive but have now been made more punitive, and the radio and television
regulations," Muthoki Mumo, CPJ's sub-Saharan representative, told
DW.
Muthoki, however, noted that she had yet to see the full amendments on broadcasting as only a statement on radio and television regulations were made available by the government.
Opposition leader, Tundu Lissu |
"It is very
important for the sake of transparency and for the sake of the media outlets
which would be forced to adhere to these new regulations and for the sake of
public discourse, to make sure that the radio and television regulations are
made public, distributed as widely as possible so that everyone can see for
themselves, and if they have concerns they can raise them with the
government." She said.
The media regulatory
body TCRA has determined, with immediate effect, which all domestic media
must apply for a separate license if they wish to broadcast content from
foreign media on their channels. The partner broadcasters of several
international media, including DW, are directly affected.
Media outlets in
Tanzania must re-register and are not allowed to broadcast programs of
their foreign broadcast partners until a new license is granted.
Several DW partner channels have temporarily suspended broadcasting the
regularly adopted DW programs after the new regulation was announced.
The channels have been
given one week to submit a new license application, according to sources in
media management.
DW, which has a large
following in Tanzania, has since issued a statement on the new regulations,
describing them as "a worrying trend towards restrictions on press
freedom."
DW Director
General Peter Limbourg said: "This is a clumsy attempt to suppress critical
voices and independent information before the elections in
Tanzania. DW's programs are extremely popular among users in Tanzania."
"The first
reactions of our partners show enormous civil courage. But this far-reaching
form of state censorship is difficult to counter. We support our partner
broadcasters in Tanzania and together we will find ways to keep the population
well informed, for example through the increased use of social media."
According to
Mtambakile, Tanzania's strict media laws have led to censorship in
newsrooms. "People are very careful about what they report because it
is very easy to get your newspaper, radio or television station shut down
because of these laws," she said.
Mtambalike added
that the Tanzanian media has been perhaps more pro-Magufuli than
his predecessors — but warned that with such leanings in the media
"you tend to write more about the praises rather than to also criticize
the system."
Deodatus Balile,
chairman of the Tanzania Editor's Forum, told DW that the new
regulations go a bit against the candid law that is found in the constitution
under Article 18 — which encourages freedom of expression, access to
information, and freedom to share your opinion.
"The system of
enacting laws in Tanzania is usually retroactive but now they have decided to
use a retrospective system where the law which is enacted today is affecting
what happened a day before, a month before, or a year before. We think it's not
a good idea for a law to affect mistakes that were made before the law was
enacted," Balile said.
Kennedy Wandera,
chairperson of the Foreign Press Association, Africa (FPAA), told DW:
"What is happening in Tanzania is very unfortunate, you would expect that
they would be able to leverage the media gains in that particular country,
especially when they are getting to elections," he said.
"But with these
regulations, I think that it is going to be seen by the media as a way of
curtailing their work, which is very wrong."
Wandera, however, noted
that the association of Tanzania's local media with international media
helps the country to show the world what it is capable of doing.
"For instance,
tourism. Tanzania has a rich tourism industry, if such cannot be told on the
global stage, then it becomes difficult for people outside Tanzania to
understand what is happening in Tanzania. Media freedom is a core pillar of
democracy in Tanzania and any other country for that matter."
Balile says the Tanzania
Editor's Forum will advise the government accordingly. "We think they
will understand our position.We are not going to use force whatsoever but
we are going to advise them to make sure that we nurture freedom of expression
for the betterment of this country." - DW
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