Volume 3 focuses on the conditions of working journalists, and the laws and court cases that affect media freedom, independence and sustainability in Tanzania, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho and the vast Democratic Republic of Congo. Written by legal experts, Justine White ( Senior Visiting Fellow in Communication Law, Nelson Mandela School of Law, Wits University, South Africa) and Daddy Bujitu (LLM Communication Law, Wits University) the book is based on hours of auditing media statutes, regulations, decrees and proclamations in those countries, as well as interviews with journalists themselves. This volume follows the release of previous media law guides for South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia (Volume 1) as well as Botswana, Swaziland and Zambia (Volume 2) in 2003 and 2005.
Head of the KAS Media programme for sub-Saharan Africa, Gaby Neujahr said the authors have produced the most up to date English reference for journalists, editors, students and investors on the media environment in those countries. She said, the new book offered journalists insight into the law-framework in which they work.
Some of the findings of this new volume are:
- DRC, Tanzania and Lesotho have failed to transform their state broadcasting service into a public broadcasting service, operating in the public interest. None of the countries can claim to have an independent communications regulator.
- Like Zimbabwe, all three countries have laws or policies to enforce the registration or accreditation of journalists.
- None of the countries have enacted access to information laws and to obtain public information is a daily struggle for reporters.
- Defamation charges are abused by the powerful to scare independent media into self-censorship.
- No protection is available in law for journalists to prevent the disclosure of confidential sources of information.