By Damas Kanyabwoya
Summary
Dar es Salaam. On December 9, 1961 Tanganyikans were given an Independence Day gift, the Uhuru newspaper. The first edition of the new publication hit the newsstands that fateful day.
Uhuru was the result of the ‘rebranding’ of Sauti Ya Tanu, which had played a significant role in the advocacy of the Tanganyika African National Union (Tanu) policies and in articulating the party’s demands for political freedom. Uhuru started as a weekly but became a daily in 1965.
Uhuru, which is still in circulation, has probably been the only constant in the Tanzanian media industry in the past 60 years. This is because since independence there have been many changes, transformation and ‘more of the same’ in the Tanzanian media landscape in every aspect.
The ruling party-owned tabloid was not the only newspaper in the newsstands on Independence Day. Other publications which had been in circulation long before independence also had special editions for the occasion.
These included the Tanganyika Standard, Kiongozi, and Mwafrika na Taifa, according to Martin Sturmer, who made a research on media history in Tanzania.
It is rightful to say that at independence Tanganyika had a media industry that was small but vibrant in terms of quantity and nature of ownership. There were newspapers owned by the ruling party and a religious organization (Uhuru and Kiongozi) and there were privately-owned publications (Mwafrika, Tanganyika Standard, Ngurumo, Daily Nation, Mwafrika na Taifa, Sunday Nation and Sunday News)
In fact the colonial government had not established any news outlet. The Tanganyika Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) was a ‘public broadcaster’ modeled on the style of the BBC.
After the launch of Uhuru on Independence Day Tanu went ahead to establish the Mwananchi Printing and Publishing Company in 1962 and then launched an English newspaper, the Nationalist in 1964.
When the Tanu government started pivoting towards the left the media policy bent more towards state control of mass media. Some of the privately owned newspapers were eventually nationalized and others ceased circulation for commercial reasons. The state moved to establish its own press and formed the Tanganyika Standard Newspaper (TSN). The Standard and the Nationalist were merged to form the Daily News. The Tanu press remained with the Uhuru daily. The Workers wing of Tanu launched its newspaper, Mfanyakazi.
The circulation of Kenyan-owned Daily Nation and Sunday nation had been banned in Tanzania for erroneous reporting of the 1964 army mutiny.
TBC was ‘nationalised’ in 1965, renamed Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD) and reconstituted as a department of the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Tourism that was under the ministership of Idris Abdul Wakil, according to Sturmer. By 1970 all private media outlets had been privatized.
The media vibrancy of the colonial Tanganyika that the new nation inherited did not translate into policies. The laws had been draconian enough to land Julius Nyerere, the then leader of the struggle for independence, into legal trouble when he was accused of sedition in 1958.
But, according to Sturmer, after independence the government decided to continue with the colonial media statutes for the reasons that the new country needed some limits on media freedom to ensure peace and stability. “Nyerere compared the young nation to a country at war and claimed that in wartime newspapers would have to accept certain limitations on their freedom everywhere,” Sturmer says in his book The Media History of Tanzania.
In 1970 President Nyerere issued the President’s Charter, which was considered as the de facto media policy. The Charter urged the nationalized Standard (and by extension all other newspapers) to serve the people and to support the socialist ideology, specifically, and all other government policies, generally.
The freedom of the press to report, initiate debates and discussions was to be done in the socialist context, according to the Charter. The media was allowed to criticize “particular acts of individual Tanu or government leaders and to publicise any failures in the community, by whomever they are committed” and it was also free “to criticize the implementation of agreed policies, either on its own initiative or following upon complaints our suggestions from its readers.”
But despite this leeway the media was still expected to spread an understanding about socialism in Tanzania among its readers.
In 1976, the government enacted the Newspaper Act which became the main law that guided the press for 40 years. The law carried over some aspects of colonial era press laws and regulations but added some more stringent aspects. The Newspaper Act gave powers to the President, the minister in charge of the information sector and the registrar of newspaper to control, ban, or prohibit the publication or the importation of newspapers.
For the 30 years after independence the media industry functioned as an offshoot of the state and the ruling party, according to analysts. This had serious implications in the professionalism as far media studies and training of journalists was concerned. It also had ramifications in the investments and introduction of new media technologies in the country.
Despite this highly political media environment that had curtailed private ownership and professionalism the liberalization of the industry in the early 1990s opened the floodgates of media outlets so much so that by 2016, Tanzania Mainland had 153 registered magazines and 153 newspapers, according to the Department of Information. Most of the registered newspapers were for the Swahili press (88) and the rest (65) were for the English press. At the same time four newspapers had been banned. Also by 2016 Tanzania Mainland had 30 registered Television Stations and 148 registered radio stations. About 23 radio stations were registered in one year, in 2016, according to the data from the ministry of Information. The number of registered radio stations had jumped to 183 in 2020 according to statistics from the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA). Out of these 11 were community radios, 146 were district radios, 20 were regional radios and six were national radios. The number of registered television stations had increased to 42 in 2020. Out of these 13 television stations were National Content Services (Commercial Broadcasting-Free to Air Television); three television stations were regional content services (Commercial Broadcasting-Free to Air Television); 19 television stations were district content services (Commercial Broadcasting-Free to Air Television). Seven television stations were National Content Services (Subscription Broadcasting Channels).
The advancement in digital technologies has also brought new opportunities for Tanzania. By August 110 TCRA had registered 575 digital media platforms. These included 110 online blogs, eight online forums, 11 online radios, 25 simulcasting radios, 353 online TV, six simulcasting TVs, and 52 Other Online Services.
Dr Dotto Paul Kuhenga, a lecturer in Media and Development at the University of Dar es Salaam says in the last 60 years Tanzanian media has passed through different periods that had varying dimensions. He notes that in the first three decades after independence journalism was not a full-fledged profession with its own roots. The role of the media was shaped by the government’s policies, issues and events. That is why even many of the journalists and editors came from other professions.
During this period most of the major national media outlets were owned by the government and the ruling party, which explained the lack of competition within the media industry.
The nature of ownership of media also determined news coverage was done. “In the first decades journalism was driven by developmental journalism. Development journalism is by nature collaborative and can also be top down with more focus put on what leaders say,” Dr Dotto notes.
He adds that the development journalism aspect has continued to shape Tanzanian news coverage to date. “There is some kind of discipline that is averse to risk-taking even when investigative reports are presented in the media. This is a result of the long tradition of Tanzanian media of putting an emphasis on public service,” Dr Dotto argues.
He adds; “Journalism started evolving as a profession after the re-introduction of multiparty politics and liberalization of the economy in the late 1980s and the early 1990s.”
The period that started with the liberalization of the economy was characterized by the establishment of private media, which increased competition and the opening of media training colleges and universities, Dr Dotto notes.
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