DAR ES SALAAM, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian National Assembly Speaker Job Ndugai on Thursday urged the east African nation's editors and media owners to be careful and avoid publishing hateful news about parliament, its leaders and Members of Parliament.
Ndugai said editors should be very careful in their duties and stop playing around with parliament, one of the pillars of the state.
He made the remarks while giving his ruling on a point of clarification sought by Ulanga Member of Parliament (MP), Goodluck Mlingwa, on April 9, concerning an article that was published by a local weekly called Raia Mwema, loosely translated into "good citizen".
In his point of order, the MP argued that the article written by one Pascal Mayalla and published in Raia Mwema of April 9 had a story headlined -- Is parliament kowtowing to government?
The legislator said in the story, the writer blamed the Speaker for submitting two reports on minerals conducted by parliament to the government, saying the august House had failed in its duties.
The Speaker said the writer said most MPs did not know what they were doing in parliament and they were only there to get allowances.
Ndugai ordered the writer and editors of Raia Mwema to appear before the Parliamentary Privileges, Ethics and Powers committee to respond to allegations against them.
"Let this message reach all editors that they should not joke around with the Speaker," said Ndugai, adding that the story was in bad taste and was aimed at tarnishing the image of parliament, MP, the government and it was ultimately aimed at inciting the public against the House.
