(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release: Vienna, 6 June 2003 IPI Announces 2003 Free Media Pioneer Award Winner The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, has decided to honour the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), one of the few independent media councils in Africa, […]
(IPI/IFEX) – The following is an IPI press release:
Vienna, 6 June 2003
IPI Announces 2003 Free Media Pioneer Award Winner
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, has decided to honour the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), one of the few independent media councils in Africa, with the 2003 Free Media Pioneer Award.
The 2003 Free Media Pioneer Award was to have been presented at an award ceremony during the IPI World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya, originally scheduled for 1-4 June 2003. However, warnings about a “credible threat” of a terrorist attack on foreigners and commercial aircraft compelled IPI to cancel the event.
Founded in June 1995 by media proprietors, editors and journalists, the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) was not allowed to operate until 22 May 1997, when it was finally registered by the government of Tanzania. Working within a system of antiquated media laws dating back to colonial rule, the MCT was born out of the realisation that Tanzania’s media – which have proliferated dramatically since the advent of multiparty politics in 1992 – should develop their own self-regulatory code of practice rather than wait for government intervention through laws such as the National Security Act, News Agency Act, Penal Code, Societies Ordinance Act and Newspaper Act, among others.
The MCT’s declared aim is to “help create an environment in which democracy, free speech and basic rights will finally predominate” by “promoting freedom of the media and ensuring the highest professional standards of accountability” in Tanzania and East and Southern Africa. To this end, the MCT, which comprises academics, business representatives and prominent citizens chosen by journalists, has dedicated itself to ensuring that Tanzania’s media follow the letter and the spirit of a code of practice drafted and adopted by the industry. It has been relentless in calling for the repeal of repressive media laws and instrumental in working toward the establishment of further independent media councils in the region.
The annual IPI Free Media Pioneer Award was established by IPI in 1996 to honour organisations that have fought against great odds to ensure freer and more independent media in their country. The Award is co-sponsored by the US-based Freedom Forum, a non-partisan, international foundation dedicated to press freedom and free speech.
Previous winners of the Free Media Pioneer Award are the independent daily newspaper, Danas, Belgrade (2002); the on-line newspaper Malaysiakini.com, Kuala Lumpur (2001); IPYS – Press and Society Institute, Lima (2000); EFJA – Ethiopian Free Press Journalists Association, Addis Ababa (1999); Radio B-92, Belgrade (1998); AJI – Alliance of Independent Journalists, Jakarta (1997); and NTV, Moscow (1996).
