Frequently asked questions
Questions:
What is the legal status of TMF?
What is the total budget of TMF?
How does TMF define investigative journalism?
Who qualifies for TMF grants?
How big are the grants?
Does TMF also provide capacity-building initiatives for journalists?
How is TMF managed?
How will TMF measure project impact after its three-year pilot phase?
What is the relationship between TMF and the Tanzanian government?
How can TMF guarantee its own financial sustainability following the three-year pilot?
TMF is funded by international donors, why are they involved in supporting investigative and public interest journalism in Tanzania?
What is the legal status of TMF?
Tanzania Media Fund is a project managed by HIVOS - Tanzania. HIVOS - Tanzania is a company limited by guarantee and without a share capital. HIVOS Tanzania is registered under the Companies Act, 2002.
What is the total budget of TMF?
TMF manages a three-year budget of $7.1 million USD.
Operational costs represent approximately 20% of TMF’s total budget. The remaining 80% is earmarked for grants and educational outreach. Each year an average of $2 million USD is available for grants.
How does TMF define investigative journalism?
Investigative journalism is critical, in–depth journalism. Critical means journalism that does not merely report news, but creates news that would not have existed without the journalist's intervention. In-depth implies a substantial journalistic effort, either in a quantitative sense (e.g., time spent on research, number of sources consulted), a qualitative sense (e.g., sharp questions formulated, new approaches taken up), or both.
Who qualifies for TMF grants?
Grants are available for individual journalists or institutions (media associations, media outlets, CSOs with strong media components and media training institutions) based and registered in Tanzania.
How big are the grants?
Individual grants range between 400,000 and 2,000,000 Tshs.
Institutional grants range between 60,000,000 and 200,000,000 Tshs.
Does TMF also provide capacity-building initiatives for journalists?
TMF supports journalism capacity building through a 'learning by doing' programme called Media Up. More information to follow in 2009.
How is TMF managed?
TMF consists of a secretariat, a steering committee, and a grant selection committee. The secretariat is responsible for TMF’s daily operations and is overseen by the steering committee, an independent supervisory body. The grant selection committee advises the secretariat on individual grants and makes decisions on institutional grants.
How will TMF measure project impact after its three-year pilot phase?
TMF is currently developing a monitoring and evaluation framework in order to evaluate the impact of its grant making activities. An external evaluation will be conducted in the final year of the pilot phase.
What is the relationship between TMF and the Tanzanian government?
While there is no formal working relationship between TMF and the government, TMF and its funders maintain a continuous and open dialogue with public officials.
How can TMF guarantee its own financial sustainability following the three-year pilot?
TMF receives funds from a variety of sources, including the Tanzanian government, Tanzanian media outlets, individuals, and international donors. This mix of domestic and international support is supplemented by TMF’s own income-generating educational initiatives.
TMF is funded by international donors, why are they involved in supporting investigative and public interest journalism in Tanzania?
The development partners support the contribute to TMF from an understanding that a free and independent media of high quality representing diversity of voices contributes to domestic accountability, and transparency and is crucial to achieve real and sustained overall development of society. The development partners believe that TMF contributes to high quality and independent media.
