Local media have been challenged to give a critical assessment of the message behind stories from the wire (international media agencies) as some of them might be illintentioned to propagate some hidden agenda.
The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and the Democratic Republic of Congo Ambassador, Juma-Alfani Mpango told the ‘Daily News’ that whilst it wasn’t his intention to interfere with press freedom, care should be taken when selecting which news to publish.
“President Jakaya Kikwete once said that if we are building the same house, why should we fight for the building materials? Our primary goal is to strengthen cooperation between our countries, having articles with bad taste doesn’t help,” he said.
He said that on many occasions people tend to forget that where one’s freedom of expression ends, it is where another person’s starts and therefore when one wants to say something, one should weigh the words first before they are aired.
Ambassador Mpango was making reference to an article that appeared on the Huffington Post website bearing the headline ‘Congo: The Patchwork Country’ written by Obadias Ndaba who is a commentator and columnist.
The article said the trouble with Congo has never been confined to the eastern part of the country. It further alleged that its root cause was absence of government control, entrenched corruption and a sad history of a succession of commandersin- chief from its inception. All of this prevented the country from developing any sense of nationhood or belonging to a common ideal.
Mr Mpango said what people don’t realize or fail to understand was that every country has its ups and downs and there is none that is perfect. “There is no country in the world that opposes peace and development for the wellbeing of the people.
We (DRC) are a huge country with numerous challenges but the government is making strides to address them,” he said. The Ambassador said that it was in the best interest of all African countries to strive at fostering closer cooperation in trade, social affairs, sports, music, economic and cultural ties because they are a catalyst to development.
Referring to the article, he said it was not true that there are tribal conflicts ongoing and that the security situation was very tense. He admitted that there were unstable pockets (locations) but to a larger extent the country was safe and calm and that economic development was in progress.
The article cited that Katanga is the richest province in Congo, with a third of the world’s cobalt reserves and a tenth of the world copper reserves. Like Congo, Katanga is a massive ungoverned territory, more than twice the size of the United Kingdom, sitting a thousand miles away from Kinshasa.
Katanga’s people are displaying an increasing feeling of uneasiness and anger, like the rest of the country, that Kinshasa comes to take away their resources and does nothing to fulfill the basic roles of governance. Security is nonexistent.
By MASEMBE TAMBWE, Tanzania Daily News
