Tanzania Govt newspaper apologizes to EAC’s Sezibera

This is the web front page of “HABARI LEO” today with the retraction story featuring the photo of Dr Sezibera

A newspaper funded directly by the Government of Tanzania “HABARI LEO” has apologized to the Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC), Dr Richard Sezibera, after it fabricated statements on the Tanzania-Rwanda conflict and attributed them to him.

On Monday, Dr Sezibera held a press conference at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, during which he discussed the ongoing lull in relations between Tanzania and Rwanda. However, “HABARI LEO” reported in its story published on Tuesday, that Dr Sezibera had “counseled President Kagame to listen to the advice of President Kikwete.”

A social media campaign ensued later and it became clear the paper had deliberately fabricated the story meant to convince ordinary Tanzanians that their country had been victimized. The genesis of the issue is comments made by President Kikwete in May that Rwanda negotiates with FDLR rebels in DR Congo.

Amid a fierce barrage of media scrutiny from Rwandan media, Tanzanian Swahili media and blogs have tended to defend President Kikwete and portraying Rwanda and its leaders as arrogant. The “HABARI LEO” article quoting EAC Secretary General was meant to reinforce that perception among Tanzanian that their president was right.

Dr Sezibera said on Twitter on Tuesday night that his office had “asked for a retraction of the article”. He added: “…they totally maliciously misrepresented what I said, and invented their own story.”

“… the HABARI LEO article is pure fabrication. The statements attributed to me are inventions of the writer.”

On Wednesday, the newspaper published another article retracting the Tuesday story and apologizing to Dr. Sezibera. The paper also said that it had rectified the article, and adding that it was misleading.

A spokesman of the EAC Secretariat, Owara Richard Othieno, said the paper had released false information to the public; attributing quotations which had been fabricated.

“HABARI LEO” in its retraction admitted: “when Dr. Sezibera was speaking with journalists on Monday morning, he did not give any advice to President Kagame about President Kikwete.”

According to the Paper’s confession, Dr Sezibera said: “the EAC will do everything possible to make sure the conflict between the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Rwanda is resolved diplomatically.”

The paper adds that Dr. Sezibera had told journalists: “Tanzania and Rwanda have had good business and cultural relationship for a long time”.

In the same controversial article, “HABARI LEO” claimed that the Tanzania-Rwanda confrontation was being played out among nationals from the two countries who work at EAC secretariat. It has also been established that this information was made-up.

The Paper now quotes the Office of the EAC secretary General as saying: “There has not been any misunderstanding among our EAC workers at any time whether by their nationalities, tribe and race”.

However, reading the “HABARI LEO” retraction article, it shows the paper did not want to write it. Instead of making direct quotes, it uses indirect reporting and creates another problem. For example, its title reads: “Amb. Sezibera explains statement about Kagame”, but the actual declaration in the body of the story of their confession shows a different take.