Describe the main features of the measure/initiative:
Press Freedom Violations Register (PFVR). The database has been built up and is now an online platform, which can be inputted by data by email, SMS and directly into database. The PFVR will be used as a tool by national media houses, journalists associations, individual journalists, civil society organisations and international organisations for evidence based advocacy.
Media Monitoring activities. The monitoring of ethical performance and quality of the media provides not only the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) with data for designing its interventions based on actual needs, but also media houses and journalists with information on how to improve their quality and services to the public. Issues of quality, such as sourcing, gender and accuracy will therefore be monitored. Media monitoring will be expanded.
-Awards, besides playing the traditional roles of informing, educating and entertaining the public, journalists are increasingly taking the crucial role of agents of change and empowerment. They research and expose, they advocate for important causes, they are a bridge between the leaders and the masses, and they are the voice of the voiceless. They shape opinion and articulate the people’s agenda.
Website of the measure/initiative, if available:
What are the results achieved so far through the implementation of the measure/initiative?:
The Council monitored PFV on a daily basis as reported in various media outlets.
PFV in 2018 included threats, intimidation, assaults, kidnapping of journalists, and destruction, vandalism as well as arson on media property.
Five TV stations were fined in the New Year, four suspended for running ‘unbalanced’ stories.
For the first time in the journalism profession in Tanzania, MCT in collaboration with Spark Media Consulting Ltd produced a systematic and scientific report on the quality of media in Tanzania
MCT worked with an independent international firm to research on the quality of the media in the country. The study was extended to radio, newspapers, TV, blogs and online media. In collaboration with local media houses and journalism tutors, Spark Media Consulting Ltd of Berne, Switzerland developed quality criteria which were agreed with MCT and met international standards. The results of the study and lessons learned would be followed up with specific interventions.
Three Consultants were engaged in August 2018 to compile MCT’s flagship book, State of the Media Report. This time the book covers 2017/ 2018. For practical purposes, research on this MCT flagship publication is done during last quarter of each year in order to enable researchers to fully capture all important media scenes and developments during the specific year of reference. The book is expected to launched in early 2019.
The Excellence in Journalism Awards Tanzania (EJAT) 2017 Gala Night was held on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Dar es Salaam. It was a prize giving ceremony for awarding and recognizing journalists who excelled in their work in 2017.