MCT’s New Executive Secretary Ernest Sungura (right) assume office today January 16, 2024. Here he receives working tools from the outgoing Executive Secretary Kajubi Mukajanga.

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Media Council gets new ES

By Paul Mallimbo

At 10:30 a.m of January 16, 2024, the new Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), Executive Secretary, Ernest Sungura arrives at the MCT headquarters, Tegeta, Skanska Area, Bagamoyo Road, as his first day in his new office.

Sungura was received by his predecessor the outgoing Executive Secretary Kajubi Mukajanga who is retiring after serving for 15 years.

The new ES was taken through an office tour where he was also introduced to 12 MCT staff out of them 10 are in Dar es Salaam and two in Zanzibar.

According to Global Investigative Journalism Network (gijc), Ernest Sungura, the former executive director of the Tanzania Media Foundation (TMF), is an accomplished Tanzanian journalist and media specialist with 22 years of local and international experience.

His areas of specialisation include investigative journalism, programme and grants management as well as media business development for print and broadcast.

During his tenure at TMF, Ernest pioneered and is currently championing a media business transformation model aimed at enabling and promoting investigative journalism.

He passionately believes that ‘money comes from the newsroom’ and that for the media sector to become self-sustaining and command respect, it must invest in building public appreciation and trust through quality journalism.

Before becoming TMF executive director, Ernest served as Hivos Tanzania Media Fund project executive manager and director. He has also been the principal, director of finance and director of studies at the Tanzania Institute of Media Education (TIME) and news editor and investigative reporter at The Guardian newspaper in Tanzania.

He was the first journalist in Tanzania to hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.