The Citizen newspaper is at it again. Throwing its partisan toys out of it’s cot at the behest of well…… who knows?
The below article appeared in the paper on 13th February, minus a by-line! The title, “Uk media must be fair in anti-poaching drive” seems to disguise the fact that the article is little more than an attack once again on Sarah Hermitage, one of the British investors in the Silverdale Farm case.
The summary of the article states “Can she prove beyond reasonable doubt, that British Gas, which has plans to invest heavily in Tanzania’s natural gas sector, is a product of the so-called oil and gas for elephants”. However, no one knows who the “she” is as the summary does not state it..
The Citizen purports to focus on the issue of poaching in Tanzania and a critical article published this week in Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper on the role of President Kikwete in Tanzania’s attempt to curb it. It then jumps to Sara Hermitage (as opposed to Sarah) and states “What we don’t understand, however, is the on going campaign by some Britons [being] abusive and a true reflection of how the Western media at times tend to report Africa in ways that suits their prejudices”
It then goes on to implicate Ms Hermitage in this campaign stating “For instance one Briton, Ms Sara Hermitage, has been busy tweeting that President Kikwete should be arrested while attending the London Summit that will be attended 50 Heads of State and Government”.
This was a lie by the Citizen. Hermitage did no such thing. What she did was tweet the following three tweets which were used to highlight to President Kikwete who she knew was in London what she and her husband suffered in Tanzania when attempting to access the rule of law vis-a-vis the theft of their Farm Silverdale, by Benjamin Mengi. There is no ambiguity in the context of her tweets as seen below:-
@jmkikwete I hope when in London next week u r arrested and imprisoned in abuse of law, all your property is stolen and you suffer 1/3
2/3 @jmkikwete savage media defamation campaign. Your staff are imprisoned and threatened with beheadings and some are hacked close to death
3/3 @jmkikwete Hope you lose your life savings & r denied any access to law. You have already lost your self respect. We still have ours!
Whilst the Tweets are certainly not polite, they do not in any way as the Citizen suggests, call for the arrest of President Kikwete. So, the Citizen lied. But we don't know who lied as there is no by-line so we will fix the responsibility for the lie on the executive editor Bakari Steven Machumu who must take responsibility for what gets published and why.
Hermitage does and has Tweeted constantly criticising the Kikwete regime for corruption and indeed on the issue of Elephant poaching. But so have other far more notable personalities yet she is singled out by the paper’s un by-lined and poorly written piece.
In 2012, Ms Hermitage successfully defended a Libel action brought against her in the London High Court by Reginald Mengi in relation to her accusations that he had used IPP Media to defame her and destroy her reputation in order to assist his brother in the theft of the the lease to Silverdale Farm.
The judgment of LJ bean was damning of Reginald Mengi who he found (along with his witnesses) to have lied to and misled the court. The judge found Reginald Mengi complicit in the corruption of his brother Benjamin in the theft of the lease to Silverdale Farm. He was denied leave to appeal both to the Appeal and Supreme courts in the UK. The judge also stated that he probably had met the threshold under Tanzanian law for the criminal offence of Criminal Libel should the authorities wish to arrest him, which of course, they did not. The judge also found that IPP Media operated a favourable media policy in respect of President Kikwete.
Now Reginald Mengi is not a nobody is in Tanzania is he? He is a powerful and rich media owner with awards and dubious qualifications coming out of his hat. He states he is against corruption (so the London High Court ruling poses somewhat of a problem for him) even exposing in the Sharks of Corruption case who he felt to be the ten most corrupt men in Tanzania.
The fact that he had spent what is estimated to be over £3 million on suing Hermitage for Libel and losing and, being found to be corrupt would be of interest to the Citizen newspaper. After all, it states below, “We are .. strong advocates and defenders of the freedom of expression, for we believe they are one of the pillars of a free and democratic society.”
Freedom of expression is indeed a pillar of society but not it seems for the Citizen when it comes to letting its readers know of the corruption of Reginald Mengi. It failed to print one word on the case or the verdict or judgement. Ummm, so much for a free and democratic society.
But then the Citizen and the Nation Media Group in particular has been trying to shut Ms Hermitage up for some time now. See the following link for a detailed expose of how they have done this :-
http://thesilverdalecase.blogspot.com.es/2011/12/east-africa-media-moghuls-want-to.html
In late 2010 Hermitage provided information to Mr. Amadou Ba, chief executive officer of the African Media Initiative (AMI). The information provided to Mr. Ba concerned various issues on the abusive use of IPP Media to defame her and destroy her business interests in Tanzania.
AMI board member Eric Chinje stated the following in respect of Hermitages correspondence:-
“No more direct correspondence with Ms. Hermitage. She will always find reason to keep you (and the rest of us) focused on her case. I am also of the view that we should quickly put our heads together and, if need be, seek legal counsel on a way forward. This woman will not stop: AMI affords her an important regional platform to air her grievances. We must avoid playing into her hands.
I suggest we quietly take up the matter with concerned authorities in the UK and Tanzania, rejecting the notion that this regional initiative can be held hostage by any individual, be they a rich taxpayer from a donor country. The arrogance is baffling! (I was at the ICFJ yesterday and this subject came up, especially with regard to Joyce's role as co-chair of AMLF 2010. I detected a certain level of concern about the whole issue and interest in how we planned to handle it.)
Can a conference call be organized on Friday to agree on the outlines of a strategy to deal with this? I will not be surprised to find others with similar grievances lurking in the outfield and wanting to resort to the same tactics.
Du courage! Eric
Linus Gitahi, CEO of the Nation media Group and member of AMI’s board of directors was copied the information and stated that Hermitage should be ignored.
It is not the first time there has been an attempt to stir up racial hatred, (or just hatred against Hermitage) over her activity regarding the state of corruption in Tanzania.
In early 2013 Mbaraka Islam, Reginald Mengi’s editor for his paper This Day went on You Tube and posted a frenzied ranting asked the Tanzanian public to demonstrate against Hermitage on the streets of Tanzania. See link:-
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All in all, this illiterate and hypocritical piece of journalism (and I use that word lightly) has more importance than giving Ms Hermitage free publicity. It does nothing to serve the Tanzanian public’s human right of access to information or in any way promotes a democratic society which the Citizen states it is committed to.
It does do, a lot to serve the interests of certain individuals in Tanzania. In any event, it is an indictment on the reputation of the Agha Khan and his vision for a free and objective African media.The Citizen article states “As a nation, we would like to be challenged fairly”. Now isn’t that just the pot calling the kettle black!
The Citizen
Thursday
February 13, 2014
UK media must be fair in anti-poaching drive
In Summary
Can she prove beyond reasonable doubt, that British Gas, which has plans to invest heavily in Tanzania’s natural gas sector, is a product of the so-called oil and gas for elephants?
There have been a lot of heated debate on whether President Jakaya Kikwete has been taking any serious measures aimed at taming poaching.
This debate took a new turn this week, when a leading UK newspaper, Mail on Sunday, wrote strong worded article accusing President Kikwete’s regime of presiding over the slaughter of elephants that is unprecedented in Tanzania’s history.
We fully understand that poaching is a serious problem, not only in Tanzania but in Africa, especially in Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa Republic and South Africa.
We are also strong advocates and defenders of the freedom of expression, for we believe they are one of the pillars of a free and democratic society.
What we don’t understand, however, is the on going campaign by some Britons who purport to be much more concerned about the elephants in Tanzania than Tanzanians themselves!
This campaign, to say the least, is abusive and a true reflection of how the Western media at times tend to report Africa in ways that suits their prejudices.
For instance one Briton, Ms Sara Hermitage, has been busy tweeting that President Kikwete should be arrested while attending the London Summit that will be attended 50 Heads of State and Government.
A section of UK’s media has also portrayed Tanzania as a corrupt country, a country that has totally failed to curb poaching. They are totally ignoring all measures that have been put in place to fight the jumbo slaughter, short of which we probably could be counting a mere dozen or so of the priceless animals surviving today.
Granted, there is corruption in our country. We also are poor in terms of our economic performance though in natural resources, we are very rich. We also understand poaching is a national disaster that must be ended. However, what we cannot bear are the unjustifiable attacks from Britons and their media, directed at President Kikwete and Tanzanians as a whole.
As a nation, we would like to be challenged fairly – with facts. Ours might be an economically struggling country, but that doesn’t give licence to the likes of Ms Hermitage to brand it the most corrupt and dictatorial regime where justice doesn’t exist!
This woman and her fellow Britons cannot hide the fact that UK is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It is UK that sold a military radar to Tanzania at an inflated price about a decade ago.
It is Britain’s then Prime Minister Tony Blair who blocked Serious Fraud Office from investigating the most corrupt arms deal between British Aerospace Engineering (BAE) and the Saudi regime.
Ms Hermitage, in one of her tweets, says: “If the British public only knew, we now trade oil and gas for elephants and self-respect.”
Can she prove beyond reasonable doubt, that British Gas, which has plans to invest heavily in Tanzania’s natural gas sector, is a product of the so-called oil and gas for elephants?
The fact that Britain gives aid to Tanzania doesn’t mean we should be their targets of insults and humiliation.
There comes a time when we all have to stand united as a country, as Tanzanians, regardless of our political and ideological differences and say “No” to unjustifiable media campaign aimed at tarnishing the image of our nation. This is it.
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