Have quacks invaded sports journalism in Tanzania?

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A lot of concern has been raised over the professionalism of sports writers in Tanzania, with pundits calling on the Tanzania Sports Writers Association (TASWA) to take immediate remedial measures.

For a long time now journalists covering soccer matches -- both local and international -- have shown lack of professionalism. They are either ignorant of the rules of the game or take no trouble to dig into the profiles of the teams and their players. This has resulted in stagnation of sports journalism.
For instance, there is no difference between now and when there was no television coverage of sports in the country. Today, journalists need to be more knowledgeable and innovative as technology has enabled soccer fans to access live coverage of major international matches such as the World Cup and leagues of various European countries.

Gone is the time when local fans relied on live radio broadcasts or special sports programmes on national the broadcaster, Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam (RTD), to get information about their favourite clubs, the national team, players and coaches. It was then quite common for Tanzanian soccer lovers to glue themselves to their radio sets to listen to live coverage.

But today, things have changed drastically. People no longer rely on the voices of broadcasters like Juma Mkamia (TBC1), Isaac Gamba, Deogratius Rweyunga (ITV) or Tom Chilala (Star TV) to follow up a game because they can see all the action on television.

Some of the broadcasters are quite boring because they don’t give the audience all that they want to know about a particular game, especially background information about the competing teams and profiles of the players.

Fans want to know how many times the competing teams have met, previous scores, players’ national team caps and appearances in their respective clubs. Unfortunately, this important information is hardly given. Many sports writers/broadcasters are lazy and do not gather this information.
This problem is compounded by the failure of national sports associations, including the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF), and clubs to have reliable, updated libraries and data bases where sports writers could easily get the necessary information.

The journalists’ other shortfall is partisanship. There are reporters who identify themselves openly with certain clubs, thus putting themselves in danger of favouring those clubs in their reporting and misleading the public.

In one incident, a sports journalist with close relations with a local club landed himself in trouble for discrediting a player of a rival club. The player retaliated by punching the reporter in public and this brought into disrepute not only the reporter, but the profession of sports journalism.

There have also been cases of some reporters being barred from attending meetings, or even showing their faces at premises, of certain clubs because of their perceived biases. How do such journalists hope to be effective and unprofessional? As pointed out earlier, some journalists have ventured into the profession without passion and qualification. Many newsrooms are filled with unqualified journalists, locally referred to as ‘kanjanja’. And these are mostly the ones who attend press conferences or constantly throng the Tanzania Information Services (Maelezo) doing nothing.

The easiest way to identify them is their inability to understand the speaker and ask relevant questions.
Prominent athletics coach Samuel Tupa was recently irked by the stubbornness of some sports journalists who were covering a national athletics championship at the National Stadium.

Ignorant of the rules, the reporters insisted on placing themselves at the finishing line so that they could record the best times, while that job is done by an electronic timer.

Tupa was also dismayed by the irrelevant question asked by some sports reporters. “It is clear some reporters are not familiar with the rules and regulations of the games they cover,” he summed up.

But instead of heaping all the blame on the journalists, a critical eye should also be cast on TASWA -- the body entrusted with the duty to look after the professional advancement of sports writers and ensure they abide by ethics.


Unfortunately, TASWA has lately proved to be more interested in promoting its football team than performing its noble duty of guardian. The public would have expected TASWA to organise frequent courses and seminars aimed at enlightening its members on the constantly changing sports rules and regulations.

But all is not lost. While local soccer clubs are preparing themselves for the new league season, TASWA should also get down to business by purging journalists who bring the profession into disrepute.