Tanzania: Film Industry Ordered to Desist Moral Decay

Dodoma — A MEMBER of Parliament has called for government's intervention against local films and music videos which were acting as agents of moral decay by significantly displaying violent and sexual acts against women.
During the questions and answers session, nominated Member of Parliament James Mbatia (NCCR), said some arts like local films and music videos show violence against women, abuse and dressing them in skimpy wear as a way of attracting more business.
"These acts of using women as the biggest 'salespersons' in a manner that humiliates them is against our moral fabric. The dignity of our women should not be abused like this as we see in many of our films and local music videos today," he said Mbatia, in turn, wanted to know what the government was doing to arrest such a development that uses women as objects.
Responding, the Deputy Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Amos Makalla, asked film makers to follow their legal obligation to hand in their films to the film board for review before they enter the market, against which Makalla warned, they can be held accountable.
He also said the government has been at the forefront to speak and act against the issue of moral decay that aims at dihumanising a woman like violence against them, abuse and dressing them in skimpy wear.
Some of the actions the government had taken, he said, included advising and rejecting films that seem to go against acceptable moral practices in the country and those that go against the film laws. This, he said, also included films that seem to dehumanize a woman and denying her of her dignity.
"Some films were brought for checking before release and we had to reject them until changes were made to those areas that had immoral scenes," he said. He said that the Ministry, through the film board, is ongoing with its strict stance and educating people in that industry through media so that they follow existing laws and regulations to advance the industry in the right way acceptable to all.
Makalla said the government had started a programme to formalise the music and film industry, which it hoped would return discipline and expand scope of management, control and following the law. He said the government continues to ask film makers not to make or engage in those acts that exude moral decadence.
But Mbatia decried the ongoing trend of many films exuding sex acts as a fashionable thing, thus sending wrong messages to communities that watch such films. "Why should films be about sex and not messages that build a moral fabric among Tanzanians?
Even as some film makers are doing a good job, majority of the films, it is said, are centred around such topics that do not build our communities," he said. The MP appealed to film makers to ask themselves why they have not been able to do to stop the moral decay and the rot in the industry.
"We shall be trapped and we have to seek an intervention through the government monitoring these films and videos before they enter the local market. It all starts from these videos," he said.