Let the media do its job, Zitto urges JPM

Arusha. President John Magufuli once again came under fire yesterday for his continued threats to the media.

ACT-Wazalendo leader Zitto Kabwe urged the Head of State to give the fourth estate the space to discharge its duties independently and with the expected impartiality.

“The media houses should be left to exercise their right to inform the Tanzanian public,” he said when he addressed a meeting convened by the opposition party to take stock of the Arusha Declaration, the country’s blue-print for Socialism and Self Reliance unveiled by the Founding Father of the Nation Mwalimu Julius Nyerere in 1967.

Mr Zitto said it was wrong for the president to liken Tanzania’s media with those which operated in Rwanda prior and during the genocide in 1994. Nearly one million people were massacred in Rwanda at that time with a section of the media blamed for fanning the hatred among ethnic groups as the blood-letting continued. The opposition leader said the Rwanda genocide was not caused by the media but by politicians abusing the ethnic dimension.

He implored on President Magufuli to stop giving out threatening statements against journalists, noting that the media was only playing its role as stipulated in the Constitution -- inform and sensitise the public.

He told the meeting, which attracted a number of opposition leaders including Arusha Urban MP (Chadema) Godless Lema, that the media has the right to criticise government and inform the public objectively.

The remarks by Mr Zitto came on the heels of a week-long tug of war between the government and the media which began with the storming of Clouds FM Studios in Dar es Salaam on March 17 night by the sitting Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner in a company of armed men. This led to condemnation from the entire media fraternity and a probe team formed by the former minister for Information, Arts, Culture and Sports, Mr Nape Nnauye, implicated the RC in the saga and called on higher government authorities to take disciplinary measures against him.

However, Mr Nnauye was early on Thursday sacked from the ministerial post even before he submitted the reports to his superiors.

On Friday when, he was swearing in the new Information minister, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, President Magufuli sent a chilling warning to the media owners that he would act against those reporting on what he described as ‘seditious information’.

Mr Zitto also criticised the Head of State for not appointing the Chief Justice as required by the Constitution. The position has been vacant since the retirement of Judge Othman Chande.

The Arusha Urban legislator, who was released only recently from the remand prison where he spent four months for a case on alleged sedition, addressed ACT-Wazalendo members and decried intimidation against opposition leaders by the government. “The whole country is decrying the incident on Mr Nnauye. But you all know in here that for years similar or even worse incidents occurred against opposition politicians. It is a high time now that we condemn the use of force and intimidations from the state. We should be bold, I saw some scaring faces here when Mr Kabwe was mentioning the President’s name, that is unacceptable,” he said.

The outspoken legislator said he did not care to be called a traitor by joining forces with ACT-Wazalendo and said Chadema would support the outfit in agitating for the rights of the ordinary Tanzanians.