POLICEMEN WERE STRUCK JOURNALIST
DAVID MWANGOSI AND
MAKE YOU HIS DEATH SPONTANEOUS
Since independence of Tanzania 1961, known as
Tanganyika, There was Freedom of media but in 1970’s the government introduced
act of news paper 1976 and act of broadcasting No 6 in the year 1993 .This act
gives Minister
of Information, Culture and Sports authority to punish the news paper at
anytime. http://www.egov.go.tz.
According to this act journalist fill their
no freedom for media. In
marking the 20th anniversary of World Press Day, President KIKWETE said the
following: “Being an ardent
believer in press freedom which is part of the extended Freedom of Expression,
I would like to congratulate all members of the media in Tanzania and around
the world. We have every reason to celebrate the impressive level of
achievement in Tanzania.”
(Source: Kikwete commends local media
fraternity. Daily News Tanzania.)
Perhaps he really is an ardent believer
in Press freedom. However, not for Tanzania.
As far as “impressive level of achievement” is concerned, his
regime’s record on media repression, unprecedented in the history of
Tanzania, speaks for itself. Today, the nation, where once papers
published, informed the public about GRAND corruption and on corrupt officials,
has become a nation, where journalists are brutally killed, violently attacked,
a local paper banned and articles revealing GRAND corruption, suppressed.
Recently in Parliament, Mr. Joseph
Mbilinyi, the shadow Minister of Information, Culture and Sports said the
following:
“Tanzania
has turned into a nation that bans media organs that unveil graft and abuse of
power among leaders and officials of the government and the ruling party.”
FOR, it is under the current
regime:
That articles on the longest running,
most expensive legal suit in Dar’s history (a cash generating project of few
officials) are suppressed.
That unprecedented attacks on
journalists are taking place: Mr. Daudi Mwagosi (brutally shot by a police
officer in front of people). Mr. Absolum Kibanda, Tanzania Editor’s Forum
Chairman, was seriously injured in a violent attack which left him blind in one
eye, and Mr. Erick Kabendera constantly harassed, his parents interrogated
because he testified in a trial. (For more on Erick Kabendera’s harassment
please read: "Voices of Danger: Break-ins and family interrogation
fail to silence Tanzanian reporter" The Independent. Wednesday May 8, 2013.)
That a local paper, Mwanahalisi, was
banned when a story that exposed the identity of those behind the kidnapping
and torture of Dr. Ulimboka was published.
Also, noteworthy is the report from the
Legal and Human Rights Center Tanzania.
Some excerpts on Freedom of the Media
from the Legal and Human Rights Center Report 2012 Tanzania:
The banning
of Mwanahalisi newspaper
violated not only the freedom of the media but also the right to access
information as provided for in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 (ICCPR)
the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) and Article 18 of the
Constitution of United Republic of Tanzania, 1977 which provides for almost
absolute freedom of expression.
“The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania
continues to use the oppressive law such as the Newspapers Act to suppress the freedom of the media in
Tanzania. This law has for many years been condemned as one of the draconian
and unconstitutional law..”~ Legal and Human Rights Center Report 2012
Tanzania.
“Experiences indicate that the Tanzanian government’s
attitude towards the media is characterized by the fact that free media exposes
all sort of State abuse to the public. “ ~ Legal and Human Rights Center Report
2012 Tanzania.
There was a
time in Tanzania when the media published, reported about GRAND corruption, but
that was in the past.
Once upon a time in Tanzania, the press
published articles against GRAND corruption, revealed the criminal activities
of few officials and the role played by the Bank of Tanzania in the Valambhia
case, now known as the most expensive legal suit in Dar’s history. The
Valambhia case began, almost 20 years ago, as a civil suit between two business
partners during the regime of the second President. However, when the Tanzanian
government intervened in the case, disregarding ALL high court rulings, the
case continued like a drug addiction during the Mkapa years. As long as
Mr. Valambhia was in the courts, certain lawyers were handsomely paid by the
BoT.
However, most important to note, that
throughout the years, the local media: papers and radio, published and talked
about the case. University students filled the courtrooms, the case was studied
at University of Dar es salaam, and today 9 out of 15 Valambhia cases are being
taught at the local University.
During those days, The Valambhia case
was on the lips and minds of all people, from taxi drivers to the local street
vendors, from middle class to the elite, from rural to urban. People were
informed. They were informed on all the courts decisions, the role played by
BoT in the matter, and of the names of the corrupt officials, Ministries involved.
Almost daily the matter was published
in the papers because local journalists continued to write and report on the
matter. Under life threatening conditions and intimidation, the few
reporters continued to write and report. Even when they were offered money NOT
to write about the case, they wrote. During those days, it was those few
reporters and the local media on the front lines in the war against corruption
in the country.
In 2002, an article appeared in The
EAST AFRICAN, which revealed a report compiled by a South African Security firm
in which the firm accused certain Tanzanian officials, including the Tanzania
Attorney General’s chambers and the Bank of Tanzania of ‘conspiring and
engineering money laundering’ in the Valambhia case.
(Source: “DAR officials ‘Abetting
Money Laundering’.” The East
African. Monday, April 29, 2002.)
In 2003, the Valambhia case, which had
been in litigation since 1989, was finally and conclusively determined by the
highest court of the land, the Court of Appeals. The most famous, historic
struggle for justice against corruption, a struggle for the rule of law
culminated in an arrest warrant for the late governor of the Bank of Tanzania,
Mr. Daudi Balali.
The press was right there.
It was the first and rare occasion in
the history of Tanzania where a high court had issued an arrest warrant for one
of the highest public official, a governor of the Bank of Tanzania.
(That was then. NOW, it’s an entirely
different matter. In 2009, under the Kikwete regime, articles on the Bank of
Tanzania’s role in the matter and on the GRAND corruption involved in the case
are suppressed.)
Important to note the fact that during
the Mkapa years, BoT was synonymous with CORRUPTION. During President Kikwete’s
second term, a horrific silence observed on the Bank of Tanzania’s
corruption.
The silence starts with the suppression
of articles on the Valambhia case.
In 2009, two articles that appeared in
local paper concerning the Valambhia case, were both suppressed. The two
articles listed below are the only ones I was able to find.
Articles as follows:
1) “REVEALED: the most expensive legal
suit in Dar’s history”
This article revealed the GRAND
corruption behind the Valambhia case. It exposed the role of the BoT in the
matter. (The case ended in 2003, however, what is going on presently is
described in the article by a Snr. Official: The case ended in 2003…There is no case..This is a cash generating
project of few officials….No one cares to stop it, because its their cash
generating machine. And the Bank pays. Meanwhile, generating an unjustified
debt to nation.)
2) “BoT ordered to clean house”
Also suppressed. This article exposed
the culture of nepotism at the BoT, it revealed the endless hiring of so called
‘consultants’ and the BoT role in the Valambhia case.
& So the cash generating
UNSUSTAINABLE machine of the FEW continues to generate an UNWARRANTED,
UNJUSTIFIED, UNNECESSARY, debt to the nation, but lines pockets of the FEW
continues….& BOT pays…under the current regime.
For over 20 years, the media in
Tanzania published articles on the Valambhia case. Those published articles
provide a historical record of a momentous fight for the rule of law in
Tanzania. They give an in depth look at the most historic fight against GRAND
corruption in Tanzania which involved the highest court of the land and the
Bank of Tanzania.
In SUPPRESSING articles revealing the
GRAND corruption in the matter is to DENY the people of Tanzania their own
history in the struggle for justice against corruption, in the struggle for the
Rule of Law in Tanzania.
Thank for Michael MacDonald
“Freedom of the Press? Not
in Tanzania" by
Michael MacDonald, Huffington Post.
