Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) was established on June 30, 1995 with the overall goal of promoting and maintaining freedom of the media and ensuring the highest professional standards and accountability in Tanzania.
MCT Mission Statement is to create an environment that enables a strong and ethical media that contributes towards a more democratic and just society. The Vision is a democratic Tanzania with a free, responsible and effective media.
MCT is a member based organisation and it has 199 institutional members including media outlets, media training and research institutions; professional associations of media practitioners, press clubs, editors’ for and Online media.
MCT programming focuses on four main areas to achieve its intended goal and outcomes as follows:
1. Advocacy: To enable media perform its duties freely and effectively and the public enjoy freedom of expression and access to information.
2. Press Freedom Violations Register: To document, publish and follow up on press freedom violations so that media houses, journalists, CSOs and human rights defenders can use it as a tool to challenge actions and incidents which violate press freedom and raise their voices against impunity. Authorities, societal stakeholders and the public are provided with empirical evidence of such acts against the media.
3. Mediation and Arbitration: To enhance ethical practice and conciliate between media and public thus ensuring media accountability, efficacy and credibility. The Council provides mediation and arbitration services to individuals, institutions and the general public who feel wronged by the media.
4. Media Monitoring: To proactively foster media quality and ensure highest standards so that media effectively fulfil its roles. The Council does rigorous media monitoring noting professional and ethical transgressions. Periodic monitoring reports are shared with editors and other stakeholders for them to address the shortcomings. The monitoring also allows the Council to discern trends and patterns in reportage so that it can design appropriate interventions.