Stop Demonizing BBC journalists
I would like to thank the BBC for inviting me to analyze Tanzania’s mining reforms for the fourth time last week. Thanks to many of you here for your kind and encouraging words. I’m told the interview has the whole country talking (great), and I have begun to hear some feedback from various sources. The response has been endlessly positive, but as expected some negative and ugly ones as well, no surprises. So I wanted to take a moment to share a few thoughts with you.
As a researcher and analyst, my task was to offer analysis in response to questions posed that day. In conducting such analyses, I have always relied on credible sources and sound research (my publications speak for themselves) that is not biased, politically influenced or part of any political agenda, and last week was no different. I believe this kind of analysis is needed so that viewers and citizens more broadly can be informed and make up their own minds. As a patriot Tanzanian, I also have an interest in seeing the country realize its potential in the mining sector, hence my advice on the strengthening of state-owned enterprises.
A few days after the interview, it’s sad and disgusting to see journalists who covered the story now being on the receiving end of some really vile and abusive personal attacks, threats and being labelled enemies of the state, a label that I myself have become used in recent years, but I suppose it’s something new for them. It’s such a shame because, as journalists, they were just doing their job and don’t deserve to be demonized.
Such vile attacks are not entirely surprising in these difficult times, when challenging the regime’s narratives of success is equated with betrayal. Nonetheless I’m happy that the interview has provoked a national dialogue on the state of the mining sector, particularly the question of transparency. I hope two to five years from now we will look back at the interview as a critical juncture regarding the need for national dialogue on the state of transparency in the extractive sector. In the meantime, keep the conversation going with civility. And yes, more constructive Spanas are still coming.
