Media Landscape in Tanzania

=Background= The media in Tanzania have passed through four major phases: the German, British, post-colonial, and transition phases. During the German colonial rule, the media served the communication interests and needs of the German administration. Similarly, the media under British rule served as a propaganda tool to support the British colonial regime. During the British colonial rule, there were nationalist media established solely to serve the interest of the nationalists, who were agitating for self-rule. After then Tanganyika (before its Union with Zanzibar in 1964) attained independence in 1961, the newly-independent government established independent media geared towards fostering national development, promoting socialism and self-reliance as well as promoting national unity. Towards the end of the 1980s, Tanzania was passing through a transition – both politically and economically – which necessitated change in the media industry. It was during this phase that private media re-emerged and were re-established after many years of being sidelined in favour of state-run media due to the policies in place from 1967 to the 1980s. According to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), there are 84 registered radio stations, and 26 television stations in the country. Many newspapers mushroomed during the transition phase and following the introduction of plural politics in 1992. Although more than 350 publications have been registered, less than 15 per cent are operational.

=Training in Oil and Gas Reporting= The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) in partnership with the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) organised two training workshops. The first training, which was conducted in Dar es Salaam in August 2013, attracted journalists from Tanzania, Ghana and Uganda. The second training was held in Kampala in June 2014. Some 29 journalists from Ghana, Uganda and Tanzania attended the workshop. Tanzanian journalists, who benefited from the two workshops, came from KwanzaJamii, the Guardian, East African Business Week, Zanzibar Leo, Pambazuko FM, Nipashe, Channel 10, Zanzibar Broadcasting Corporation, Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC), the Daily News and others. In the meantime, the Tanzania Media Fund (TMF) and the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) are striving to improve the quality of extractive reporting in the country by offering short-term training and mentorship by targeting senior journalists and editors .. Apart from the training initiatives, the media’s role in covering the extractive sector is acknowledged under the Tanzania Natural Gas Policy (2013) framework, which acknowledges the importance of the the role of the media in providing accurate and balanced information on the natural gas industry to the public. In this regard, the media need to strengthen their capacity in understanding natural gas industry to deliver accurate and timely information. Such a development will help to increase public awareness as well as foster transparency and accountability on matters pertaining to the natural gas industry (Article 5.1.9).

=Media coverage of oil and gas= An article titled ‘Journalism on resource stores: watchdog, guard-dog or lap-dog’ published in the Scribes journal – a publication of the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) – indicates that the extractive sector’s reporting in Tanzania is characterised by five major issues: 1.	Most of the stories are products of ready-made information supplied to the media by extractive companies. 2.	Stories lack in-depth analysis as manifested by over-reliance on information supplied by extractive companies to media, and lack of knowledge on the part of the messenger that tends to force journalists to succumb unwittingly to the lure of stories tailored by company spin-doctors. 3.	Stories suffer from single-source syndrome and, hence, lack of source diversity. 4.	Marginalisation of public voices. Since extractive stories are heavily sourced from either the government or companies involved in the extractive business, public voices are mute in the resultant news. As the article notes, this “makes the public recipients of information and not active participants in the media sphere. Yet, the public are not only affected by extractive operations but also have a right to air their views on how the environment should be protected and social impacts dealt with for the benefit of the society and country at large.” 5.	Most of the stories focus on management issues of the extractive industry, and not on broad issues of the industry. . To encourage and strengthen quality journalism in extractive reporting, the Organising Committee of the Excellence in Journalism Awards Tanzania (EJAT) included a new category on extractive industries in 2014.

=Coverage of Statoil leaked PSA addendum= Following the leak of the Statoil PSA addendum, the media in Tanzania gave prominence to the leaked addendum. The Guardian treated the leak as a front page splash, whereas other newspapers such as Mwananchi, Nipashe and Mtanzania placed the story in either second or third position on the front page. According to mtega blog, “most of these articles take a similar line [the contract is bad]. They don’t really take a proper look at the contract itself, or ask whether or not the deal is a good one for Tanzania.” Mtega blog also notes, “the only significant exception to that line [that the contract is bad] is the article in the government-owned paper, Daily News, which reports on the defence of the deal made by senior management of the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation.” The article quotes the then TPDC Managing Director, Yona Kilagane, as saying that “the government will earn 61 per cent of revenues from natural gas while Statoil and its partner ExxonMobil will share the remaining 39 per cent under the model PSA on exploration and production of natural gas.”

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