Authors: Roland John, Martha Nickson, Turdaco
AfricaPress-Tanzania: MEDIA Council of Tanzania (MCT) has launched the 2020 Excellence in Journalism Awards Tanzania (EJAT) competitions, with senior staff of the Tanzania Standard (Newspapers) Limited (TSN), Ms Pudenciana Temba (pictured) elected chairperson of the judges’ panel.
The launching was held on Monday, in which about 455 journalistic works have been submitted for competition, out of which 154 were Dar es Salaam-based journalists, said the MCT Executive Secretary, Mr Kajubi Mukajanga.
Other entries, according to Mr Mukajanga, are from Mwanza region 30, Kagera and Zanzibar 29 each, Tanga 28 and Arusha 21.
“There is slight drop of the submissions compared to last year, where we recorded 6 44 journalistic works. However, this is not a new thing…. we have been experiencing fluctuation in submissions. The lowest number we have ever recorded was about 300, and the highest 900,” said the Secretary.
He further revealed that three categories namely– creativity for human development, safe menstruation, as well as chemical effects for health and environment have been added on the list.
It was further noted that 6 8 media houses submitted their works.
Electronic media submitted 215 works, which is equivalent to 53.3 per cent (of all works), newspapers 180 (44.7 per cent) and social media eight works, equivalent to 2.0 per cent.
TSN ranked number three in submission (33 works), behind Mwananchi Communications Limited (61), and The Guardian Limited (41), followed by Pangani FM (25) and TBC (24).
“For the first time in the history of EJAT since its introduction in 2009, the competition’s final celebrations (awarding ceremony) will take place outside Dar es Salaam. We will be in Tanga this time, on September 9th this year,” said Mr Mukajanga.
The newly elected judges’ panel Chairperson, Ms Temba said “We will do justice because we took an oath. We are looking at and selecting only quality works out of the best. I insist on quality assurance because many journalists have been submitting low-quality works.”
