Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA Editors Forum (TEF) has expressed satisfaction over access to information in the country, saying citizens’ access to information has tremendously increased, a move which boosts civic participation in development agenda.
“To date, members of the public are widely access information from relevant government authorities unlike the past, thanks to the introduction of modern information and communication technologies,” said the Chairperson of TEF, Deodatus Balile.
He made the statement in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday during an editors’ Luncheon to contemplate on access to information which went in line with commemoration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information.
This year’s theme for the day was ‘Building back better with access to information’.
He explained that nowadays access to information has increased unlike in the past when getting information from any government office one had to submit questions on paper or write a letter to request information, terming it as a bureaucracy.
“But today you can get information even by calling or sending text message to relevant source of information in the government,” he said.
Mr Balile, however, observed that more education was still needed for the information officers, especially those in public offices to play their role of providing information to the citizens.
He said the TEF and other stakeholders will continue to intervene and create awareness to responsible persons so that they develop a culture of sharing information without being asked for; a move which he said will create responsible citizens who participate in development activities.
He however warned against rising trend of spreading wrong information as people use technological advancement for sharing information from person to person.
He gave an example of the Covid-19 outbreak, saying there were a lot of myths being shared among members of the public, something which caused panic, fear and retarded vaccination campaigns.
For her part, Advocacy Manager from Twaweza think tank, Ms Annastazia Rugaba, said a recent study revealed that access to information at Local Government Level was marred by challenges like limited budgets, bureaucracies, culture of secrecy and confidentiality.
“Other challenges limiting access to information are low demand where most of the citizens are not ready to seek information from responsible officers,”
Mr Neville Meena, TEF executive committee member, said there was a need for editors and other media practitioners to develop proactive modality of holding responsible those who propagate misinformation for their own benefits.
“There is a tendency that media outlets are hesitating to make an apology when defame some people or entities, which is against professional ethics and may harm development efforts. Editors must take part in ending these kinds of shortcomings,”
