Prevention of Corruption and Combating Act of 2007: Recommendations

Corruption law formally challenged
13 Aug 2007By Guardian Reporter
Media stakeholders have presented to the Parliamentary Committee on Social Welfare and Community Development their reservations on the weakness of a clause in the Prevention of Corruption and Combating Act of 2007, which they say infringes on freedom of the press. The stakeholders want section 37 (1) of the Act, which prevents the media or individual persons from reporting alleged offences under investigation by the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau, to be struck off. They have presented their recommendations under the umbrella of the Coalition for Advocacy for Freedom of Information and Expression, which includes the Media Council of Tanzania, Media Owners Association, Tanzania Media Women Association and Legal and Human Right Centre. Others are Tanzania Gender Network Programme, TANLET, MISA-TAN, Nola and Tanganyika Law Society The recommendations were submitted in Dodoma last week to House Committee Chairperson Jenista Mhagama. In their recommendations, the stakeholders said implementation of the Act would largely affect journalists who were the main stakeholders. The Act doesn`t describe procedures that are to be followed to make officials of the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau responsible when they announce or publish cases or names of people under investigations. `It will therefore be very difficult for any person, including journalists, to know that a particular issue is under investigation,` they added. They further stated that ordinary people would be denied the right to give information and it would be difficult for PCCB itself to get information on people who were engaged in corrupt practices for the fear that at the end of the day, the informants would be taken to task. `The Act also prohibits Members of Parliament from discussing people they suspect have been involved in corruption. This is a bad indicator to good governance, built in democracy and human rights,` they said. They further said the way it is at the moment, the Act tries to conceal people allegedly involved in corruption. `It is true that, a person involved in corruption scandal is not a good person to Tanzanians. He is supposed to be known to the public so that the government should take immediate action to deal with that person,` the media stakeholders added in their recommendations. The media stakeholders said that instead of restricting the media from reporting people under investigation, the law should make it an offence for PCCB officials to disclose the identity of a person being investigated. They said that the role of the media was vital. There was thus no need for unnecessary limitations. They retaliated that the war against corruption could only succeed if there was collective effort between the government and the public `Implementation of this Act is an impediment to PCCB efforts to scale down corruption,` they said. Early this month, media stakeholders who met in Dar es Salaam decried the section, saying it defeated the whole concept of investigative journalism. The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act of 2007 became operational last month.
* SOURCE: Guardian