Saturday 10 September 2016

Leadership and Freedom of the Press in Tanzania


Silence, silence, silence!  This is what is experienced by journalists in Tanzania during  Mwalimu Nyerere regime, whereby he was the chief editor of everything and  no one dared to talk about the government. Expectations are high among Tanzanians on Magufuli new leadership regime about media freedom as he is trying to change everything of the past.  There were no platforms? ; Transparency? What caused such silence? This raises key question to meditate, Are Tanzanian media free to support the national welfare as Magufuli suggests? What is the problem underlying media freedom in Tanzania today?  

Tanzanian media is still not free to exercise their fourth estate mandate and debate on press even in the Magufuli regime as the Minister of Information, Culture and Sports, Mr. Nape Nnauye recently announced to the public the restriction of live broadcasting of Parliamentary issues by any media in Tanzania.

 Although the constitution of Tanzania provides a foundation for the protection of freedom of expression in the media, in fact Tanzania has a series of laws that are continually raised to punish critics of the government. Parliament and courts are intimidating journalistic freedom. The constitution of Tanzania of 1977 provides basic constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression.  Article 18 of the constitution states that every person has the right to freedom of opinion and expression of his/her ideas, considering the right to seek, receive and disseminate information regardless of national boundaries. Tanzania does not have among the legal protection of free expression in the media. Instead, It has a series of active legal restrictions such as The National Security Act 1970, Newspaper Act, 1976 and others  on freedom of media expression that are raised with alarming regularity.

 Media owners, advertisers, religion and culture are among the threats hindering press freedom in Tanzania, however much this goes with performance. The state is just one among the several political threats to press freedom in Tanzania. The Tanzanian media are too controlled by limited cultural, business, class interests to build harmony on action that would benefit people of all backgrounds.

However, various tools of pressure are used in Tanzania to journalists who express contrary views to those of the state and its agents are harassed, beaten and in most cases jailed or killed altogether. Good examples of the journalists who are the victims of those harassments in Tanzania are Said Kubenea, Ndimara Tegambwage, Abdallah Ulimwengu, and DavidMwangosi among others. Also many newspapers has been banned such as Mwanahalisi, Mawio, This Day and others approving that  Tanzania has not really developed a sustainable culture of freedom of the press and free expression generally.

Kilimwiko,( 2010), argues that there is little clarity in public opinion about who are to be the major actors in maintaining a free and responsible media system in Tanzania. Moreover, lack of knowledge and skills of what media freedom is, and who are the guarantors of media freedom is the key question for everyone to swallow.

Although institutions such as MISA Tanzania aremonitoring the violation of media freedom by making some efforts to enable journalists and media houses to defend themselves against censorship, monitoring causes of violation of media freedom is needed. Moreover, media institutions are not often engaging in serious dialogue with leaders regarding the importance of free and responsive public debate, Tanzania Election of 2015 being a good example.

The media are expected to set the agenda and platform for debating the development of where the country should go hence journalistic freedom is essential for agenda setting. This assumes that media have ability and leadership to set such agenda if indeed however much this is a myth and inconsistency in Tanzania; hence the need for professionals to introduce effective monitoring of their own practitioners and maintain independent commissions to sanction violation of media codes of media ethics.

Friday 9 September 2016

Day 2 of the Training



Well! On 8th September, 2016,  the introductory part of it,  we learn internet use in our everyday journalism whereby the instructor Mr. Piek Johannson highlighted  internet as a useful tool in journalism as it is used as a source of information, searching for facts or content, and for our case as lecturers; academic materials.
 Also, we had tips on journalistic research via internet as :
·         Thinking first on what are you looking for and where to find it before going to web
·         Looking for simple facts or background
·         Should Google or find on specific website by monitoring other news sites
·         Choosing the right search by trying different search options and go to original sources by scanning words while reading because the more you read local and international materials, the more useful and updated you become.
Further, I was excited by the exercise of linking the blogs of others and linking websites within the text.  All in all, I find the training useful in every step we touch because am experiencing new lesson in my journalistic carrier,
Thank you MISA TANZANIA in corroboration with Vikes and St. Augustine University of Tanzania for the coordination of the training.

Wednesday 7 September 2016

Short story on the first day of training

I find the training so fruitful as on the first day of it after introducing ourselves, we created our own blogs; a thing that met my expectations as I was more curious to create it.  we also learn how internet has changed the societies and communication worldwide. Moreover, facilitator had clear statistics on the internet users from different geographical locations together with vivid examples on the advantages that the internet has brought. Buying and selling online, learning through YouTube videos, posting through blogger, drudge reports, Amazon discussion forum on how people can lead others and discuss what they have. Furthermore, I have liked  on how a person can have commentary news, politics, lively reporting and many others through internet use.
We had heavy break for lunch,  after coming back, we had a look on statistics from Alexa.com/top sites about most popular sites on the web whereby we viewed Alexa. countries. tz, to see where Tanzania is in this technological advancement world.
generally, we need to update ourselves as we are in high learning institution whereby our clients (students) need internet education on how to search for materials for their excellence.

Internet Training


I am Catherine Frank Kemikimba, an assistant Lecturer at St. Augustine University ofTanzania.  Currently am attending  a training on how internet  has changed societies and communication at large by updating myself on how to find facts, news monitoring and search for academic materials.