Majaliwa counsels journalists about code of conduct, patriotism issues

Dar es Salaam. The government yesterday urged members of the media fraternity to stick to the code of conduct guiding their profession and avoid being used by non-patriots to deliberately distort the image of the country.

Speaking yesterday at the Excellence in Journalism Awards Tanzania (Ejat) ceremony Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa challenged the media to put forward national interests in the course of undertaking their duties.

This would in turn avoid unnecessary tussles between the government and media outlets.

“No government is happy with banning a media outlet. But on the other hand, no government is happy with the media reporting false information,” said the Premier.

“You must research before reporting. In doing so, your works will meet high-level standards.”

On the other hand, he challenged members of the media to take part in the international competitions if they were to grow even further in their profession.

He reiterated government determination to build a new relationship with the media with a view to creating a friendly working environment.

“We will always support the media industry. We will do all in our powers to protect press freedom,” said the Premier.

The Minister for Information, Communications and Information Technology, Mr Nape Nnauye, said his ministry will do whatever it takes to improve the quality of Ejat and make them sustainable. “My ministry will do all in my power to ensure it has its hands in Ejat and make them permanent and sustainable,” he promised.

He also pledged to create an enabling environment for the media outlets to operate smoothly.

He reiterated that the government was about to complete the review of media laws, policies and regulations as per President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s directives.

Since ascending to the highest office in the land on March 19, 2021, President Hassan has steadily been doing away with the hardline stance, showing some respect to the freedom of association and expression.

Speaking after the swearing-in of principal secretaries, their deputies and heads of public corporations at the State House Dar es Salaam on April 6, 2021, the Head of State showed signs that banning newspapers and social media platforms would not be the norm under her administration.

Speaking earlier, Ejat Judge lead Mkumbwa Ali called for a conducive political and economic environment to spur investigative journalism and improve other forms of news reporting.

His call was triggered by the fact that in this year’s Ejat competitions, there was a huge shortage of investigative stories.

The government and other stakeholders needed to set a stage for media to have financial muscles enough to provide capacity building to their editors and journalists.

For this to happen, he called for the government to provide tax relief to the media companies when it came to importation of machineries and other equipment.

He also called for the government to advertise with private media companies for them to improve their cash flow.

“We need media companies which are strong so that they can accommodate journalistic works which require much resources both in terms of money and time,” he suggested.

“When you look at a bigger picture, there is improvement in the quality of journalism today, however, we still have a long way to go to reach where we are supposed to.”

Ejat preparation committee chairman Kajubi Mukajanga urged stakeholders from various fronts to look at ways to have their contribution in making the awards happen and make them sustainable.

“We need to prepare ourselves to be self-reliant. Dependent on donors should be a thing of the past,” he emphasised.

“And this is possible. We did it this year.”

The government for its part, he opined, should look at how it could have its hand in the 13-year old Ejat competitions.

He said the core goal of the competition was to bolster morale to work with a high level of professionalism.

“They (awards) mean a lot,” he said.

He said in this year’s competition a total of 598 works, up from the last year’s 396, were submitted for competition.

A team of seven judges chose 61 journalists whose works appeared to be more appealing.

He said 32 were from print media, 12 from online media, nine Television and eight from radio.

Works that were up for competition were the ones published between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2021.

They were grouped into 20 categories that include among others, Economic, business and finance, health, sports, agriculture, education, human rights, good governance and mining.

The awards were prepared in collaboration with the Tanzania Media Foundation, Tanzania Media Women’s Association, the Tanzania chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, Tanzania Editors Forum, the Union of Tanzania Press Clubs, Agriculture Non-State Actors Forum, Hakielimu andTwaweza East Africa.

Winners of the awards went home with certificate, tophies and prize money. A reporter for ITV, Mr Asangama Masekepa, emerged the overall winner of Ejat 2022, which was held in Dar es Salaam yesterday. Five journalists from Mwananchi Communications Limited (MCL) namely Aurea Simtowe, Ephraim Bahemu, Harieth Makwetta, Elizabeth Edward and Joyce Joliga emerged top winners in different categories.

Ms Makweta scooped two awards in categories of health reporting.

Ms Simtowe, Mr Bahemu, Ms Joliga and Ms Edward won awards under categories of education, business, economic and finance, gas, mining and oil exploration, and open category respectively.

Icing on the cake, Ms Simtowe received a Sh2 million worth education sponsorship.

On the other hand a veteran journalist Ndimara Tegambwage received the lifetime achievement in journalism awards for his immense contribution to the media industry.

He became the sixth winner of the awards in the history of Ejat.