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Tanzania: It's an Unphill Task
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
EDITORIAL
28 March 2008
Posted to the web 28 March 2008
President Jakaya Kikwete would like to see more media coverage of the rural areas. Of course, he is quite right when he states that these areas, where the majority of Tanzanians live, have been neglected by the media in favour of the urban areas.
Underlying this statement is a realisation that the media play a key role in informing, and educating the people and highlighting challenges and shortcomings for national attention. It simply means that the areas left out of media coverage remain in the dark, with their problems getting neglected or receiving fleeting mention in the media, which are the watchdog of society. Even a glance at the newspapers will confirm that they mainly cover the urban areas.
Ideally, since more than 80 per cent of Tanzanians live in rural areas, they should be getting the bulk of press coverage, but the reality is that they don't.
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There may be good reasons for this lopsided treatment. They include the high cost of covering the remote rural areas.
It's more costly to reach the rural areas because of our country's poor communication. Officialdom often gets some coverage in the rural areas because they facilitate journalists' transportation. The danger in this is that the reporters my fail to emphasise what's more important and opt for official platitudes.
The situation is unlikely to change soon because covering the rural areas is a herculean task. Unless something is done to ease this, the towns will continue to receive more national attention and support, thanks to media coverage.
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