Fund set to boost work by media entities

Dar es Salaam. Since it started its operations in the country in 2009, Tanzania media Fund (TMF) has been sponsoring individual journalists with appealing investigative and public interest story ideas but lacks financial resources.

Despite remarkable achievements in bringing about domestic accountability, the organisation has over the time learnt that content grants were not sustainable and would not change the way media operates in Tanzania for the better, when and if the fund ceases to exist. Change in the ways of doing things in the media houses would.

Hence, the organisation, after evaluation of its pilot phase, came up with the idea to plug the gap: institutional transformation grant whereby each approved media house would receive up to Sh 200 million. According to TMF executive director Ernest Sungura, the programme which will see his organisation work closely with beneficiary media houses will last for two years with the objective of mid-wifing a long-lasting legacy in the partner institution.

The project which will be launched today in Dar es Salaam has earmarked four structural objectives which are allocated a certain number of beneficiaries with the view to achieving maximum impact and diversity.

“The aim is to contribute to structural changes in the media environment,” Sungura says: “Basically, it is a shift from content grant to sustainable structural changes within media institutions with ownership of products and processes remaining with media institutions.”

The grant focuses on identification of structural problems that hinder institutions from playing a critical role towards domestic accountability.

Challenges to be addressed include lack of quality media products, lack of investigative journalism, low circulation or reach, low readership or listenership, lack of advertisement hence inadequate revenue, low use of new technology, lack of qualified staff, lack of equipment and lack of economic sustainability.

Sungura says structural strategic objective one seeks to implement institutional mentorship to at least eight newsrooms in Dar es Salaam and upcountry whereby at least one editor and five senior journalists were reached with the aim of developing skills, ethics and pluralism of content.

The rationale behind this is apparent lack of mentoring culture in newsrooms which has forced editors to be fixers instead of guiding journalists. Practically, in most cases, editors interview reporters from the field and write a story with the reporter’s byline!

If this is allowed to continue for the next ten years, a big gap will be created between the up-and-coming journalists and the gurus who do not do their job of developing the skills of young reporters, TMF warns.

Expected long-lasting legacy from the mentorship culture to be created in the programme is a pool of junior and mid-career journalists who look upon their editors with admiration for being the main contributor to their professional development as reflected on the quality of their work.

The second structural strategic objective will be to stimulate investigative journalism through practical reporting in at least eight media houses believed by the public as critical players that function as watchdogs to those in power by the end of 2014.

This has been arrived at because, according to TMF’s evaluation findings, investigative reporting in most media houses has gone down to the point whereby stories are published with a single source, without any effort, time and energy spent on in-depth search of reliable information.

If this remains unchanged, the media cannot play its watchdog role effectively. Instead, it will compromise and act as a mouthpiece for prominent politicians and wealthy business tycoons.

If stable IJ desks are established, the result will be creation of vibrant and diverse investigative stories being part of daily operations in newsrooms with investigative desks operating without dependence on TMF or any other donor for that matter.

Structural strategic objective three of the project is economic sustainability of the media to be developed through a creative media business model that would guarantee more revenue and maximise profits for the selected four media houses by 20 per cent by the end of 2014.

Linkage to the structural problem is that economic environment for the media in Tanzania is volatile because of underdeveloped distribution systems, decreasing reading habit that would increase circulation, misuse of the value of airtime and lack of advertisement power. The challenges require a creative media business model that would guarantee more revenue and maximise profits and develop economic environment of a particular media house in a long-term partnership with TMF.

The aim is to change the trend of media houses competing for the same traditional sources of income which affect not only profitability but also results in inadequate, untimely remuneration for journalists which in turn makes them prone to bribes and ‘brown envelopes’.

“We expect this aspect to transform to economic sustainability of the beneficiary media houses with high realisation of productivity and profitability, thus enabling journalists to earn good salaries in time,” Sungura says.

He says strategic objective four is to have at least four partners on new media and social network supported by the end of 2014 to guarantee alternative online media outlets that would provide platform for reliable information to the public; right to know and create platforms for citizens’ voices; right to tell.

Linkage of new media to the problem is the fact that, though citizen journalism in Tanzania is still in its infancy, it has high potential to grow due to evolution of the web and a rapid deepening of internet and mobile phone penetration in Tanzania.

The increasing popularity of social networking sites together with the growth of mobile phone usage in the country, point to a huge potential for online and citizen journalism.

And TMF hopes that the funding will yield new media and social network sites full of reliable information which is well researched thereby increasing understanding of the citizens’ right to tell stories through the platforms where objective and diverse voices are being heard.