Dodoma:The Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority [TCRA] has urged journalists to balance the coverage of candidates in the run-up to the 2025 General Elections.
The order was issued at the annual conference of the country’s media outlets ABC2025, held in Dodoma last week, where the Manager of Broadcasting Services, Engineer Andrew Kisaka, said media outlets and journalists must balance without bias.
He said the Independent Electoral Commission has set election regulations regarding news on media outlets that must be followed and these regulations start from the Campaign, voting and results.
Engineer Kisaka said that apart from balancing the news, it is not every day that news of a particular party is the first and takes into account the time.
“News should be updated, not every day, one party’s news is always first, the second thing is to consider the time, not a certain party gets a long time and another party a short time”, said, Engineer Kisaka
He also said that news should not be edited by removing some words until the meaning intended by the politician is lost, adding lies, avoiding silly questions, and politicians should also be informed in advance that they are ‘Live’ whether on Radio or TV.
In terms of results, Engineer Kisaka urged journalists to announce what they see in the election events and in terms of results, he said that the Independent Electoral Commission is the one allowed to announce the results.
The conference is organized by the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports under the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority [TCRA].
