SECTOR 4 impartial when you are paid to do a report. Some politicians even write the news for the journalists… Journalists should be influencing the politicians, but it often happens the other way around.” An estimated 70% of private media houses lack the skills and standards of ethical reporting. “Most of their staff are not even high school graduates. Because of the low salaries, some are even picked from the street just because they can write, and they are easily influenced by politicians and money. Even many of the owners of media houses are not professional media people.” In addition, the gate-keeping process in newsrooms is not as it used to be. Many newspapers have cut costs by doing away with sub-editors and the fact-checking that they do. Not all media houses suffer from these shortcomings, however, and a few do make an effort to report fairly and accurately, according to internationally accepted professional standards. Particular mention in this regard was made of The Citizen and Mwananchi as being among those media houses with a high level of professionalism, which adhere to ethical codes of conduct and aim to get both sides of a story. “If newspapers want to survive, they can’t afford to be inaccurate or unfair because they will lose credibility. If we make mistakes, we make sure we publish an apology and a correction.” 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: 2.9 (2012 = 3.3; 2010 = 3.2; 2008 = 2.3; 2006 = 2.1) AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER Tanzania 2015 57