Tanzania
4.2

The standard of reporting follows the basic principles of
accuracy and fairness.

ANALYSIS:
The media generally are not doing enough to get the other side of
the story. There is too little analysis and in-depth coverage of issues of national importance. It is common practice to come across
misleading and sensational headlines especially in the tabloids. The
government owned Daily News seems to be doing better as regards
accuracy.
The reporting seems to be focusing activities of leaders and the
selling of newspapers, and be episode- and event- rather than issuedriven. The frequent use of stringers was cited as one root cause for
low standards.
Furthermore, there is no diversity of experts writing in the papers
and it seems that always the same political analysts get a chance.
One of the reasons cited was that a lot of people do not dare to
come forward and express their opinion in writing. Another underlying cause is the decline of quality teaching and research at the
university which does not produce top experts as expected.
SCORES:
Individual scores:

2, 3, 1, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1, 3, 2

Average score:

2.1

28

African Media Barometer - Tanzania 2006

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