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Press Laws Will Muzzle Us, Journalists Say

David Musoke and Herald Tegama write from Kampala and Dar es Salaam, respectively.
***Journalists in Uganda and Tanzania are bracing for tough new government proposals which they say will give authorities too much power over their profession. Both East African countries plan to set up press councils with sweeping powers, a move that runs counter to the continent-wide trend towards multipartyism. But journalists in both countries refuse to keep quiet about the assaults on their freedoms.
UGANDAN and Tanzanian Journalists are angered over proposed press laws which they suspect are thinly veiled government attc mpts to muzzle them.
The governments of both East African countries have announced plans to set up me dia watchdog organisations which would have the power, among other things, to discipline Journalists. The Ugandan proposals would even give offi cials the power to shut down newspapers and prevent individual Journalists from having their work published.
In both countries, the antimedia moves appear to have been prompted by recent newspaper stories which proved embarrassing to authorities. But Journalists are fighting back.
John Kakande. a columnist tn The Star, an independent Ugandan English-language dally, has described the proposal in his country as "outrageous and offensive".
"I find it hard to believe." he adds, "that President Yoweri Museveni s government — considered to be a people s government — could come up, even think of coming up with such dirty press laws."
In Tanzania too, Journalists have been vocal in their opposition to the proposal. Deegratias Masaklllja. editor of the privately-owned newspa per Watu (The People), Is blunt in assessing the government's motives for setting up the council. "There are a lot of dishonest people tn the ruling party," he says. They are upset when we expose their stinking deeds."
In Uganda, a bill now before the national legislature would require every practising journalist to possess a certificate issued by a government-appointed media council. The license would be valid for a year and renewable every year thereafter. The council would keep a register of all practising Journalists and exercise disciplinary powers over them.
The council could strike the name of a Journalist found guilty of "unprofessional conduct" off the register, or order
the seizure of a journalist's property to compensate anyone deemed lo have been aggrieved by the Journalist's work.
The bill would give absolute power to the head of state to keep out of the country any publication deemed by him to
be contrary to the public Interest and block entry into Uganda of future publications by offending authors.
The bill also makes it an offence lo degrade, revile or expose to hatred or contempt any foreign ruler, ambassador or other foreign dignitary with
the Intent of disturbing peace between Uganda and another nation. One could even be found guilty of defaming a dead person — something which is not the case under present law.
The hefty, 54 page bill has caused an uproar. The Uganda Journalists Association, a voluntary group to which most Ugandan journalists belong. Intends to ask the government to scrap the proposed law.
Ugandans have enjoyed a relatively free press since Museveni assumed power five years ago following almost two decades of civil wars, military dictatorships and political turmoil. Indeed, on several occasions the Ugandan president has claimed publicly to support freedom of expression.
Nonetheless, elements of the Ugandan government have shown Intolerance towards those Journalists who zealously exercise the freedoms they lacked under previous regimes.
One such occasion arose last year, when four Journalists at a news conference in Entabbe asked then Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda why he had not allowed young leaders to take over the leadership of his country, and why he had granted political asylum to former Ugandan president Milton Obotc.
For almost one year after the news conference, the government tried to have the journalists punished. To its annoyance, no laws were on the books at the lime providing for such punishment.
The government says It wants Ils proposed press law enacted now so that its "very important guests" arc not asked embarrassing questions which could "disturb peace and friendship" between
Ugu/xian and other nations.
In Tanzania, meanwhile, few observers had expected sudden press control in a country debating multiparty-ism. But a few days after Planning Minister Kighoma Mallma accused some local newspapers of "sedition". Information and Broadcasting Minister Benjamin Mkapa an nounced steps to control the media.
"Sonic of the newspapers' arc slowly violating journalistic ethics," reasoned Mkapa, himself a former newspaper editor. 'Incidents like scandals, insults and sometimes agitation, are threatening to sew seeds of discord and divide our society into sects which may spoil our unity and betray our humanity and culture."
Mkapa said a powerful press council would be formed to discipline "misbehaving" jour nalists. No date has been set for its implementation.
Until recently. Tanzania had only state-run media which support government policies. Mkapa s remarks represent growing Intolerance of an independent news media by a government unaccustomed to the private press.
Stanley Kamana, editor of the vocal Family Mirror, says the government should equip journalists rather than undermine them. "Its undemocratic," he says of the latest initiative, contending that the proposed press council would violate Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Tanzania is a slgntUory. "Let them take us to court if we are wrong somewhere," he argues.
Richard Marikt, principal secretary of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, hints that the council will be independent. saying the
Tanjania Journalists' Association will set it up. For hl* part. Kamana believes that since government-employed journalists run the Association, the council will probably toe the line of the ruling party
Kamana has had first hand experience of the press clampdown. lie and Fill Karashanl, editor of the private Business Times, for example, were ordered to write tn favour of the government during a crisis at Dar cs Salaam University, where student* were calling on President All Hassan Mwlnyi to take stronger measures against corruption.
The two journalists refused to follow the government's orders. Kamana went so far as to run a tong, stinging article ' advising Ahmed Diria, then minister of information and broadcasting, to drop his "rather totalitarian media philosophy."
Such criticism has angered some ministers. In an apparent attempt to stifle the controversies, Hilda Kundya, an official in the Registrar of Newspapers office, is trying to ensure that only Journalists she considers "competent" be permitted to perform editorial work.
Nonetheless, Kundya says she does not intend to block publication of controversial newspapers. “People like them," she says. "If we do anything to stop them, the people will think that we're suppressing press freedom."
Kundya welcomes the formation of the council, saying she hopes it will help her to tame some newspapers. But many Journalists in Tanzania see the council as government watchdog that will stifle opposing views.
"Whatever the attempt to gag us," says one newspaper editor, "we will find a way of expressing our opinions."
— GEMINI NEWS
DAVID MUSOKE is a Ugandan Journalist currently freelancing tn Kampala. HERALD TAGAMA Is a student of Journalism at the Tanzania School of Journalism in Dar es Salaam.