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REVIEW OF THE STATE OF THE MEDIA IN TANZANIA 2020-2021

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By Our correspondent

This brief review dwells mostly on what I consider major omissions in the report, which, if included, would have added more value to the findings.

 

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 LEGAL, REGULATORY AND POLICY REGIME

The findings should have been specific about the key role played by the Director of Information in suppressing press freedom, particularly with regard to newspapers, during the period under review.

It should be noted that it was specifically the Director of Information who used powers vested in his office to ban newspapers viewed as critical of the government.

Editors were also frequently summoned to either appear in person at the Tanzania Information Services (Maelezo) offices, or ordered to explain in writing content that apparently did not go down well with the powers that be.

There were also instances of editors being intimidated into not publishing content that was viewed as “hostile”, particularly when reporters sought the chief government spokesperson’s response in order to balance their stories.

This contributed a great deal to the self-censorship that was prevalent during the period under review.

 

CHAPTER TWO

PRESS FREEDOM VIOLATIONS

The blocking of some social media platforms, especially Twitter, in Tanzania in the run-up to, during and after the 2020 General Election should have been expounded.

People could only access Twitter through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) on their mobile phones, and this only ended after President John Pombe Magufuli’s death in March 2021.

It should be noted that most mainstream media houses in Tanzania operate Twitter handles.  However, most of Magufuli’s fiercest critics used Twitter to air their views, and this is thought to be the real reason behind the decision to block the platform in Tanzania.

Media houses that also use Twitter to disseminate information and direct traffic to their websites and other online platforms thus were effectively gagged for several months.

I think some of the respondents would have arrived at this conclusion had they been asked to air their views on the government’s decision to block Twitter.

 


CHAPTER THREE

MEDIA INVESTMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY

It is true that internet penetration is threatening traditional media, and this has been relatively well articulated in the report, but the fact that most newspaper companies are now placing more weight on online platforms deserved to be mentioned and discussed at length.

The way people access and use news has changed dramatically in the last decade or so following the proliferation of smartphones and cheaper internet access. This has put tremendous pressure on newspapers, which are now seemingly on their way out.

In fact, companies such as Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) have already embarked on the switch to digital publishing. MCL has an internal rallying call, “Digital First”, which serves to project the bigger picture as far as the shift online is concerned.


While newspapers are still paying the bills even as firms move online, experts generally agree that there will be few newspapers, if any, still in circulation in as little as ten years’ time.  The race is now on for newspaper companies to build and grow online audiences as a precursor to monetising content.

 

IPP Media Limited

Actually, at its peak, IPP Media published ELEVEN newspapers, not nine as stated in the report. Missing from the list in the report are the Daily Mail, Sunset, Alasiri, Komesha and Kasheshe.  These were published along with The Guardian, The Financial Times, The Sunday Observer, Nipashe, Taifa Letu and Lete Raha.

This Day and Kulikoni came later in the mid-2000s when some of the abovementioned titles were no longer being published.

 

CHAPTER SIX

MEDIA TRAINING AND PROFESSIONALISM

On the problem of “half-baked” graduates, I would have expected the respondents to touch on the issue of aptitude of students enrolled for journalism and mass communications course.

Do the relevant institutions subject candidates to aptitude tests, or is their previous academic performance the sole criteria for enrolment?  Are aptitude tests relevant? These questions were supposed to be posed to the respondents.

Mid-tier and higher learning institutions need to ensure that they get the right applicants for journalism and mass communication courses.  Just as employers now feel that graduates need to have to have something extra, and not just “paper qualifications”, colleges and universities also need to look beyond “paper qualifications” when enrolling journalism students.

The government’s relentless crackdown on independent media and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic have been discussed at length, though largely separately.  I think these are the twin factors that brought most media houses to their knees during the period under review.

 

COVID-19 and its impact on journalism

As if plummeting sales and a drastic fall in advertising revenue as a result of hostile government policy were not bad enough, Covid-19 dealt most media houses a mighty blow. Some had no choice but to shut down altogether.

Others, including some big names in the industry, took extreme measures to stay afloat, including retrenching staff and cutting the salaries of those who were retained.

 


Conclusion

The report is well written and highly informative as it gives unrivalled insight into the media landscape in Tanzania during the period under review.  It is the most comprehensive report on the media in Tanzania in 2020 and 2021 I have seen so far.

It is a must-read for anybody who wishes to understand the environment in which the media operated and the challenges faced during that period.

The report should be disseminated far and wide in both its soft and hard copy versions.

 

ENDS……

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