Election Reporting Workshop in Tanzania

Details

The KAS in conjunction with MISA-Tanzania rolled out the twelfth election reporting programme in Dar Es Salaam this month. The workshop included participants from as far afield as Mbeya and the island state of Zanzibar.

Elections - as an important act in any democracy - demand distinctive preparation and extraordinary skills from the media. The KAS workshops focus on the uniqueness of elections reporting and also sensitize journalists to issues such as ethics, gender equality and peculiar technical or circumstantial obstacles facing reporters of print and radio especially at that time. Ultimately participants leave with a rough plan to tackle coverage before, during and after the election period.

MISA-Tanzania has permitted the KAS to reproduce two codes of conduct that guided media performance during that country's national, presidential and local government elections in October 2005. The codes of conduct for Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania media were finalised at stakeholders' consultations in August and October with financial assistance of the United Nations' Development programme. Technical assistance was provided by the Tanzanian Media Women's Association (TAMWA) and the United Nations Assocation of Tanzania (UNA). The codes appear on our website with the kind permission of MISA-Tanzania.