TANZANIA is leading in the East African Community (EAC) region in guaranteeing the freedom of the press

TANZANIA is leading in the East African Community (EAC) region in guaranteeing the freedom of the press as provided for in the Constitution, Minister of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Mr Nape Nnauye, has said.Mr Nnauye told the National Assembly here yesterday that a report conducted in 180 countries as far as freedom of press was concerned by independent journalists also ranked Tanzania in the 11th position in Africa and was in the 71st positions worldwide.

Debating budget estimates of the President’s Office, the minister said, “These results show that we are doing very well as a country in guiding and preserving freedom of the press. This contradicts claims that we have been undermining freedom of the press.”
He also reacted to some concerned Members of Parliament (MPs), who had advanced that the executive was interfering in the functions, duties and powers of the Parliament, particularly regarding the establishment of a studio to control broadcasts of Bunge sessions before they were aired by other radio and television stations.
The minister explained that the Parliament was operating the studio on its own without any interference and that only technical support was obtained from the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) and other government agencies.

“We have agreed to provide this support until the Parliament gets its own staff to operate the studio. This is not strange as other people might think. So the claims that the executive is interfering in the operation in the Parliament are pure false,” Mr Nape said.

When debating budget estimates on the Prime Minister’s Office presented House last week, the minister defended the decision by the Parliament to establish a studio, saying it has positive effects, including reduction of costs.

He said that radio and television stations would not be obliged to instal broadcast systems inside the debating chamber. Instead, according to the minister, the stations would receive the signals through satellite for public consumption.

The new studio will be operating under Clean Feed and independent radio and television stations would need to hook frequencies of the Parliament, if it would need to broadcast live Bunge sessions.

The Parliament studio will be processing information on its own before circulating to other media organs.

Minister Nnauye, therefore, refuted claims by the opposition camp that through the Parliamentary studio there would be total blackout of Parliamentary proceedings, an act which would deny ‘wananchi’ their constitutional rights of information.