Disappointingly, some of the positive strides made in media since the 2008 AMB are being curtailed by unrelenting retrogressive processes, systems and legislation. For instance, considerable progress has been made towards ensuring the improvement of professionalism and capacity among journalists in Tanzania. Notably, there are more university graduates in journalism and media than ever before. However, the journalism profession remains beset with a number of challenges. Journalists continue to be plagued by an apparent lack of capacity, a high degree of sensationalism, corruption, job insecurity, editorial interference by media owners, and harsh, poor and risky conditions of service. Journalists appear to be ignorant about the provisions of the Labour Relations Act of 2007 which can essentially protect them from unfair labour practices. The existing union of journalists is not significantly functional and most journalists do not belong to a trade union because they are not permanently employed. Professionalism in journalism is further hampered by the mushrooming of privately-owned media outlets – many of which were set up simply to settle scores with political and/or business rivals. There is active lobbying around media issues by civil society, despite the fact that funding towards advocacy has significantly decreased. There has been a lot of engagement with Government on the draft Freedom of Information Bill, and civil society organisations have been actively advocating for the rights of journalists, for freedom of expression and for media freedoms. However, a large gap still exists in enlisting the active participation of a sizeable number of citizens at the grassroots level, rendering current efforts unsustainable and incomplete. Positively, the Tanzanian Government has placed communications personnel in almost all Government ministries. Ideally, this should improve the current level of communication between the government and the public and open up public access to information. However, the continued existence of legislation such as the Public Services Act of 1962 - which limits what public servants can reveal to the public through the media - undermines such a move. Panellists in this year’s AMB agreed on a number of measures that need to be undertaken in order to ensure the improvement of Tanzania’s media environment. These measures include encouraging and facilitating debate on digital conversion for broadcasting in preparation for digital migration in 2015; the strengthening of trade unions for journalists, establishing a common standard for journalism training; and creating a charter to ensure accountability of media owners. It was also agreed that increased advocacy would be necessary in order to realise the enactment of more progressive media bills. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER TANZANIA 2010 7