Tanzania Without prejudice to expression the laws of the land, every person has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and to seek, receive and impart or disseminate information and ideas through any media regardless of national frontiers, and also has the right of freedom from interference with his communications. Every citizen has the right to be informed at all times of various events in the country and in the world at large which are of importance to the lives and activities of the people and also of issues of importance to society (URT, 1998). In practice, however, the extent to which Tanzanians enjoy these constitutional mandates is far from certain because translating legal and constitutional rights into bureaucratic mandates and operational practices remains a key challenge to Tanzania. In fact, the government of Tanzania had prepared two draft bills on access to information; the Freedom of Information Bill (2006) and the Media Service Bill (2007). The two draft bills were however found wanting and media stakeholders rejected them. Instead, they formed a coalition under the Media of Council of Tanzania (MCT) and prepared two alternative Bills, the Right to Information Bill (2007) and the Media Service Bill. The two bills were presented to the government in 2007 but since then the latter has kept silent and done nothing serious about the bills. The right to information is a basic right for every human being as guaranteed and protected in the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, including in a number of international and regional instruments for the protection of human rights, 146 So This is Democracy • 2011 most of which Tanzania is a signatory. It is the responsibility of the government to enact good Laws to enhance the accessibility of information by its citizens for the enjoyment of such rights. But if the government is not ready for this, then Members of Parliament should use Rule 81 to have individual MPs or Parliamentary Committees to initiate and table a private motion for a Bill to enact a Law that would guarantee the right to information in Tanzania. The recently launched African Platform on Access to Information (APAI) Declaration is still a new thing in the country. Not many are aware of it and this includes media practitioners themselves. More needs to be done, particularly in terms of popularizing the document to key stakeholders (both in government and private) who will in turn take it to the general public. State of print media The print media development in Tanzania is acclaimed as exemplary in East Africa and Africa so far. Tanzania has nearly 700 registered newspapers, 19 dailies, 41 weeklies and over 50 other regulars. However, the consumption of newsprint in Tanzania is still the lowest in East Africa. For example, a combined circulation of four English dailies (Daily News, The Citizen, Guardian, and The African) is less than 50,000 copies whereas the circulation of The Daily Nation alone in Kenya is 150,000 copies by comparison. Moreover, the culture of reading in Tanzania is falling drastically; this is