FROM THE PUBLIC EDITOR'S DESK : Mediation best way to resolve disputes

I like mediation where “guided talking” could move mountains, bend hearts of hitherto irreconcilable giants and cause night and day filter into each other as a matter of time and without the slightest shriek.

The latest mediation recorded in Tanzania and made known to the Public Editor was 11 days ago—on Thursday, October 13 at the Dar es Salaam Mediation Centre of the High Court of Tanzania.

Here, Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) and one Winifrida Igogo, consented before Judge R. A. Teemba to settle, through mediation, Case No. 199 of 2016.

It started as an ordinary complaint by Winifrida Igogo (56) against MCL—publishers of Mwananchi, The Citizen and MwanaSpoti newspapers.

She was complaining about being mentioned “numerously” in an article published in Mwananchi on Thursday, September 10, 2015 as source of information contained therein.

She denied to have given “any interview to any journalist from Mwananchi or any other media outlet on her employer’s institution—Procurement and Supplies Professionals and Technicians Board (PSPTB) or any other institutions mentioned in the text.

Investigations by the Public Editor’s Desk on the article in dispute involved face-to-face interviews with the complainant and author of the article in dispute

At a later stage, the author admitted to have not interviewed Winifrida Igogo but “one of the directors” at PSPTB. He also told the PE that his interviewee asked him to ascribe to Winifrida all he had told him.

By this this confession, it was clear that the author had acted in total disregard of ethical requirement and his act was a blatant breach of code of conduct now in use in Tanzania.

However, the PE’s desk went further to contact the official at PSPTB allegedly interviewed by the author. He denied to have given any interview “on any subject to any reporter from Mwananchi.” It was at this point, well before conclusion by PE, MCL got information to the effect that Ms Igogo had lodged a case at the High Court of Tanzania. It is this case the parties have successfully settled through mediation.

Mutual agreement resulting from mediation demands that MCL publishes an apology to the plaintiff “…in the same manner that they published the article complained of.”

The agreement states too that MCL pays in monetary form for compensation of the plaintiff and costs of the case thereof.

According to the agreement, the apology should be published before October 30, 2016; and payment of money for compensation and costs for the case should be made by November 30, 2016.

That is how the two parties have avoided labyrinthine legal wrangles that eat on the precious resource—time. And, that is also how a single reporter can bring home—to his media house – disaster of untold dimensions.

It is not enough to learn, grasp and put to practice skills, methods and tactics in journalism. It demands too, strict and full observance of rules of the trade and these include adherence to ethical conduct which makes journalism what it is.

Judge R.A. Teemba was the mediator between MCL and Ms Igogo at the Mediation Centre of the High Court of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam.

The mutual agreement was signed by Ms Igogo on her own behalf; and Daniel A. Mwaijega, the Editorial Administration Manager for MCL.

At the signing of the agreement resulting from mediation, were advocates David Komeye for Ms Igogo and Imam H. Daffa for MCL.

Mediation remains one of the best ways of resolving complaints and conflicts, as they leave the parties at least with smiles. But all the same, causes of situations which eventually lead to the need for mediation ought to be avoided at all cost.