Govt urged to amend oppressive media laws

By Rose Mwalongo

Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC)

The government has been called upon to scrap out and/or amend all oppressive laws which curtail the freedom of the media and expression and instead exhaust other remedies such as the Court of law and the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) to address its dissatisfaction.


The call was made through the Tanzania Human Rights Report 2013 compiled by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) for Tanzania mainland in collaboration with the Zanzibar Legal Service Centre for the Isles, launched recently in Dar es Salaam.

In the report, LHRC faults the banning of media outlets as an ineffective means to regulate the conduct of media, terming it as an extreme form of prior censorship.

Among the oppressive laws identified in the report is the infamous Newspaper Act of 1976 with its tyrant-like provision which gives the Minister of Information the power to ban newspapers/media outlets ‘for public interest’ or for the interest of peace and good order.

“The law is only applicable in Tanzania mainland and has remained to be one of the major impediments to media freedom in the country. The power of the Minister has continued to be abused in the year 2013 as evidenced by the closure of two popular newspapers namely Mwananchi and Mtanzania,” reads the report.

The LHRC mentions the National Security Act, 1970 as one among the draconian pieces of legislation which ought to be repealed and/or replaced with a legislation that conforms to human rights standards.

“The legislation gives the government absolute power to define what should be disclosed to the public and makes it a punishable offence in any way to investigate, obtain, possess, comment on, pass on or publish any document or information which the government considers classified. Worse enough it is no defense that the accused person did not have the knowledge that such information is classified,” reads the report.

Among other oppressive media laws is the Prisons Act of 1967 for it has provisions that require one to write to the Commissioner of Prisons to request permission to interview or take photos of prisoners.

According to this law, any place with a prisoner is regarded as a prison hence an attempt to communicate with prisoners amounts to breaking this law with stern punishment set for the offence.

The Nations Defense Act, Cap 192 (R.E 2002) is one amongst them as it prohibits journalists to publish any information relating to the National Defense Force.
There have been times when some members of the force commit offences like other citizens in public places but when journalists report such incidents, soldiers tend to follow them and harass them under the umbrella of this law.

Media stakeholders under MCT have for years been campaigning for media friendly legislations but to-date efforts have been in vain as the long awaited for Media Services Bill and Right to Information Bill are still collecting dusts somewhere in the shelves.

The report further identified 17 legislations which are unfriendly to media freedom in the country.

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Anne Makinda was recently quoted as ordering the ministry responsible to table the two Bills in the coming parliament sessions.

The move came following a heavy debate over the infamous Newspapers Act of 1976 with MPs divided between those who wanted more fines from the current 5,000 to 5m/- for those violating the law against those who felt it was oppressive. 

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN