THE East Africa Law Society (EALS) is satisfied with the friendly environment for media operations in Tanzania under President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
The society remarked that for over three months of President Samia there were no any reported incidents or attempt of punishing the media house.
“We are grateful for President’s Samia leadership since we haven’t observed any act against the media in Tanzania,” stated Mr David Sigano, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the EALS.
Mr Sigano gave the remarks in Dar es Salaam over the weekend during a media training conducted by EALS in collaboration with Media Council of Tanzania (MCT).
The one-day training drew journalists from several regions to discuss recent trend of right to information, freedom of expression and media freedom in the country.
Several topics were discussed during the training aimed at charting way forward for safe, impartial and effective incident reporting as well as creating a framework for building capacity of media stakeholders, journalists in particular, in the conduct of their work.
Seasoned Advocate Fulgence Masawe was the first to take the floor when he gave a detailed presentation on the concept of media and freedom of expression and overview of recent laws and regulations in Tanzania that affect fundamental freedoms.
He also presented on international best practices in upholding freedom of expression and media limits of freedom of expression.
On his part, Dr Barack Muluka, who is Strategic Communications Advisor, took the participants to the training on international best practices for reporters and news editors.
Ms Annastazia Rugaba, who is Communications, Advocacy and Engagement Expert from Twaweza, also presented on a number of issues surrounding the Access to Information Act of 2016, particularly on what is the rationale and the role of the Act to facilitate access to information as well as the challenge.
The Programme Officer on Media Monitoring and Press Freedom Violations from MCT, Mr Paul Mallimbo, gave some highlights of recent developments in freedom of speech in Tanzania, press violations and the types of the violations involved.
When opening the training session, the EALS Deputy Treasurer and Woman Lawyers Representative, Ms Hafsa Sasya, thanked the journalists for taking their time to come and learn the best practices that guide them in their day to day work.
She pointed out that journalism is a calling that requires plenty of sacrifice and hard work and also requires regular training and capacity building to remain relevant and abreast with current trends in the industry.
“The East Africa Law Society has taken upon itself to collaborate with like-minded institutions including the Media Council of Tanzania and various media houses and civil society organisations to provide these regular and much needed updates to journalists and other media industry stakeholders,” Ms Sasya said.
She disclosed further that the EALS have also taken upon themselves leveraging on regional presence to provide safe spaces for journalists facing persecution.
“We have regularly supported journalists and lawyers under arrest and have instituted and supported several cases filed both nationally and regionally against repressive laws and arbitrary government actions,” said the EALS Deputy Treasurer.
The East Africa Law Society is the regional association for lawyers based in Arusha Tanzania. It is made up of seven national law societies and has over 20,000 individual members.
The Society works towards promoting rule of law and good governance, regional integration and development of legal profession.