SECTOR 2 Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: 4.7 (2012 = 4.3; 2010 = 3.8; 2008 = 4.1; 2006 = 3.1) 2.3 The editorial independence of print media published by a public authority is protected adequately against undue political interference. In Tanzania, there is no legal protection of editorial independence from political interference. The consensus among panellists was that the state does not interfere directly with the editorial content of private media but, except for the newspapers in the Mwananchi Communications stable, all the other privately owned media houses “have their own political and economic interests”, which dictate their editorial stance. This is despite the fact that most members of the private media have subscribed either to in-house codes of conduct, or the MCT code of conduct, which stipulate editorial independence. State-owned media outlets, in practice, are not truly public media institutions, although they are legally classified as such, and are funded by taxpayers’ contributions with a budget approved by parliamentarians, who in turn have been elected by the people. Their content tends to reflect the narrow interests of the ruling CCM party, rather than the broader interests of the public. The senior staff of these state-run media entities are also government appointees, while their boards are appointed by the Minister of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports. Both the managing director (MD) and the editor-in-chief of the stateowned Daily News are appointed by the president, for example. Editorials in the state newspapers are “definitely controlled” in practice by the state and are often blatant government propaganda. Panellists noted that interference in editorial content is not always direct, through the editor-in-chief, for example, but as a result of self-censorship “by people in the newsroom who want to keep the powers-that-be happy”. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Tanzania 2015 31