Media Council of Tanzania launches excellence in journalism awards for 2023

Dodoma. The Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) has launched the Excellence in Journalism Awards Tanzania (Ejat) for the year 2023 with two new categories added in the competition, while removing census, science and technology, oil and gas category due to low number of entries.

The new categories include social security fund and early child development thus, making a total number of 18 categories compared to last year with 20 categories.

The Ejat 2023 organizing committee said in Dodoma on Wednesday November 15, 2023 that the decision to add the new categories was a result of consultation with stakeholders and consider some areas that have little media coverage.

MCT executive secretary Mr Kajubi Mukanjanga said this during Ejat master class training for journalists which is funded by the United Nations Human Rights, East Africa Regional Office (OHCHR-EARO).

The two categories have been added in Ejat 2023 due to its essentialness for the community and the country in general.

“We have been doing media monitoring on early child development, we have discovered that a number of children undergo challenges and yet nothing much has been written on it,” he said.

Explaining about social security fund, Mr Mukanjanga said the outcry and discussion about the aforementioned is huge, for instance a person retires is given 35 percent of his pension and the rest of the amount is paid in instalments.

“Therefore, journalists must write more awareness about retirements and social security funds to inform the community,” he said.

Mr Mukanjanga said, “Since we introduced Ejat in 2009.It has brought a positive impact on journalists to tell untold stories on various issues has increased and upcoming journalists have continued to get Ejat awards compared to veterans.”

He further noted that also the number of women to submit Ejat entries has kept increasing for the past years , this shows that the awards has been a catalyst for women to tell stories.

The Ejat 2023 marks the 15th edition of the awards which were first held in 2009 with the aim to recognize and award outstanding works in journalism in the various categories of awards.

The Ejat 2023 to award the winners will be in July 2024, MCT has launched EJAT and developed a database to allow journalists to submit their published stories from January to December 2023 online or physically.

This is the second time MCT has launched Ejat Awards in upcountry regions, the first time November last year in Bukoba.

Some of categories for 2023 are health, gender, Sexual Reproductive Health and Right, data journalism, investigative and sports and entertainment