FORMER Prime Minister Judge (rtd) Joseph Warioba has urged media practitioners to adhere to professional ethics, work hard and all the time observe fairness in their reports for the public interest.

He made the call in Dar es Salaam yesterday as he launched a report dubbed: ‘State of the Media in Tanzania 2022-2023.

He said currently the media sector is swept away with psycho fancy news writing terming it as ‘Uchawa’ a trend which is leading due to lack of objectivity in news writing.

“We understand that each media house has editorial policies. Whatever the guidelines, the main objective should stick on publishing contents that favours the public interest,” he said.

Judge Warioba added: “Still the influence of western media in local media is high with no balance of sources featured in many of your stories, you need change.”

According to him, self-censorship is a major problem in news writing cautioning that, “whenever citizens seem to be side-lined, they will use their own tactics to achieve their rights.”

Dr Samwilu Mwaffisi, Senior Researcher on the report and a lecturer at Tumaini University Dar es Salaam College (TUDARCO) said it’s time the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) and other stakeholders review on how graduates with 3.5-3.9 Graduate Point Average (GPA) are enrolled in teaching under a condition of six years of probation.

According to him, experienced journalists with below 4 GPA are not enrolled into teaching with claims that this is what the curriculum demands.

He also noted that a large number of students pursuing journalism lack a will to learn and express themselves due English language barrier demanding a system that will enlist qualified students.

Hawra Shamte, a media expert, said research on veteran journalists came into a finding that the majority of media practitioners were shallow in analysing various public agenda.

“There is a gap somewhere and something needs to be done. It is observed that many journalists tend not to make a follow up of their published stories. I am in a dilemma on how editors deal with these kinds of journalists,” she said.

She further noted that the majority of students joining universities pursue journalism as a last resort or a force from parents towards the field regarding it as a field without complications.

Dotto Bulendu, St Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) Lecturer and one of the researchers on the report said that the research revealed that the media isn’t giving any attention to Artificial Intelligence (AI). It's as if they are denying the fact that that’s where the world is heading to.

“The media perceives Artificial Intelligence as a new thing. The curriculum should have a clear view on this so that we are not left behind,” he underlined.

Highlighting on the report, Kajubi Mukajanga, an editor said the report discovered that in the year 2022-2023, media houses lacked detailed reports on Dubai-based multinational logistics company DP World to limited key sources to the story.

He further said that some of the aspects featured in the report included media investment and ownership, legal regulatory and policy regime and legal regulatory and press freedom violation.