Many of the nominations for this years’ Excellence in Journalism Awards Tanzania (EJAT) were poorly written and filled with errors, says the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT.) Photo: Daniel Hayduk
Sloppy journalism has led to a 47 percent drop in finalists for the annual Excellence in Journalism Awards Tanzania (EJAT.)
Many of the articles nominated this year were poorly written, included wrong — even libelous — information and were not well thought out, says the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), which organizes the event.
Television entries were plagued with technical issues such as out of focus footage — leading to an 87.5 percent drop in qualified TV broadcast nominees.
“We fail to understand who we are writing for,” says judges panel chairman Chrysostom Rweyemamu.
“There is a need for the MCT to find ways to address these challenges. Some stories were of human interest but they lacked the voices of members of the communities for whom they were written,” says Rweyemamu.
Journalists need to write for the people, says Rweyemamu.
This year, 53 journalists have been nominated: 34 from print media, 17 from radio and two from TV.
The awards will be handed out at the annual gala on April 24, which Vice President Garib Bilal is expected to attend.
