TALKING POINT : Are we seeing press freedom in TZ retrogressing?

I have continued to monitor Tanzania’s state of the press during the fifth phase administration in juxtaposition with all the previous governments with dismay.

I am of the view that this phase may be the harshest when it comes to matters of freedom of the press such as the right of access to information and freedom of opinion. From the inception, the Magufuli administration started with little passion to engage with cameras and microphones in a debating fashion.

In fact, there has been just too many scary moments and intimidation against the media industry in the last 17 months, hence the motivation to write this piece.

From the virtual absence of press conferences and debates during the 2015 campaign trail, the President spent a moment with editors last November to take stock of the achievements and challenges his government had recorded during his one year in office.

In the course of the meeting, the President challenged the journalists to work patriotically or face the consequences, including de-registration. Shockingly, the President told his audience that despite the media industry’s agitation against a Media Services Bill, 2016, he would sign it into law as soon as it was enacted by the National Assembly.

In early February last year, the government managed to persuade Parliament to impose a ban on live Bunge broadcasts in Dodoma, citing “high cost” of transmission.

However, questions have continued to emerge on the selective application of this rule. Within the same Bunge precincts, live transmission of proceedings has been witnessed during the state of the nation address by the President, Prime Minister’s Question and Answer sessions as well as ministerial speeches, interventions and responses on various matters ensuing in the august House. Is this not a case of double standards?

Outside parliamentary business, President Magufuli is known to prefer live transmission of his engagements. In his recent tour of the Southern ‘Corridor’, the President had several official stop-overs in the Coastal, Lindi and Mtwara regions and in most of these received live broadcast coverage. At this point, a good section of analysts are wondering whether it is only costly to air Bunge sessions, and cheap to give presidential outdoor activities live coverage.

Although I fully see the value in showing government business live, I have a lot of concern over why the Parliament doesn’t require this transparency.

It is no wonder, there is speculation that the ban has to do with fact there was growing popularity of some faces in the Legislature. Any truth?

Even the main justification at the time of the imposition of the ban on live Bunge coverage has not been fulfilled. It was said there would be a Bunge Channel to be a free-to-air outlet that would transmit all Bunge business live and pre-recorded on a 24/7 basis. This promise was made more than one year ago but is not anywhere near implementation.

In countries like South Africa from where a leaf was to be borrowed, this works perfectly well. For instance, while visiting Gauteng last month, I happily enjoyed the continuous transmission of South Africa’s Joint Parliamentary and Committee sessions on Bunge Channel all day, seven days a week. The programmes were being repeated now and again for those who might have missed the live transmissions.

One interesting episode was the broadcasting of protesting members of opposition Economic Freedom Fighters’ party against President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation (SoNA) address on Thursday, February 9.

In this case, the president had to wait for over an hour as protesting opposition led by firebrand Julius Malema called on the shelving of the presidential address due to his “questionable reputation” over alleged misuse of public resources.

So, why did we have to suspend the live beaming of our own House proceedings in Dodoma? Is it indeed, about avoiding unbearable cost?

What is going to be the alternative in the near future? These and many other questions are, unfortunately, not getting answers. This has adverse implications on press freedom, which already was quite minimal, due partly to a digital migration in December 2012 which nearly halved television viewership in the country, according to the Tanzania Citizens’ Information Bureau and Article 19.

The requirement for Set Top Boxes (STBs) for TV owners to access any channel was already rendering irrelevant television sets of millions of Tanzanians.

My appeal is for the fifth phase administration to lift the ban on live Bunge broadcasts as a way of bringing back public interest on television and promoting press freedom.

This way, openness and transparency shall be realised to lay the ground for fighting corruption and other evils in the country.

Deus M Kibamba is trained in Political Science, International Relations and International Law