Tanzania
Sector 4.
4.1

The media practice high levels of professional
standards

The media follow voluntary codes of professional standards
which are enforced by self-regulatory bodies.

ANALYSIS:
There is an established Media Council of Tanzania, initiated by the
media fraternity, which has been in existence since 1995. One of
its objectives is “to consider and adjucate upon complaints from
the public and amongst the media inter se against alleged infringements of the code of ethics”. In October 2002 amendments to the
council’s constitution were made and incorporated by the National
Convention.
The council is made up of media people, lawyers and representatives of civil society and meets about four times a year. There is
good cooperation among all the various role players. The biggest
snag is that the council depends almost completely on donors (with
SIDA singled out as the main source of funding) to run its business.
Activities undertaken successfully so far include capacity building
for the media, support for a press club and the production of publications like Media Watch in both Kiswahili and English (2 monthly
publications).
Overall, the council is on the right track and most major media
players are members.
SCORES:
Individual scores:

4, 3, 5, 3, 3, 3, 4, 1, 5, 3

Average score:

3.4

African Media Barometer - Tanzania 2006

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