Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC)

Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) is the national public service broadcaster of the United Republic of Tanzania mainland. It traces its origins to 1 July 1951, when the British colonial administration launched Sauti ya Dar es Salaam (“The Voice of Dar es Salaam”); from 1 July 1956 the service operated as the original Tanganyika Broadcasting Corporation, before being dissolved in 1965 and reorganised as Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam under the Ministry of Information. The current TBC was established under the Public Corporations Act of 1992 and assumed its present form on 1 July 2007 through the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (Establishment) Order, 2007 (Government Notice No. 186 of 2007), signed by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania on 24 August 2007, merging Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam and Televisheni ya Taifa (TVT). TBC’s core television services include TBC 1, TBC 2, and the Tanzania Safari Channel (wildlife); official 2026/27 ministry planning documents also mention an English television service, Televisheni ya Kiingereza. Radio services include TBC Taifa, Bongo FM, TBC International, and regional services TBC Arusha and TBC Dodoma. The corporation is wholly owned by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, with 100% of its shares held by the Treasury Registrar within the Ministry of Finance.

Media assets

Television: TBC1, TBC2, Tanzania Safari Channel, Televisheni ya Kiingereza

Radio: TBC Taifa, TBC FM, TBC Arusha, TBC International

Ownership and governance

TBC is wholly owned by the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, with 100% of its shares held by the Treasury Registrar, a department within the Ministry of Finance. Governance is structured around a Board of Directors. Under the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation Act, No. 3 of 2025, the Director General and Board Chairman are appointed by the President; the Minister responsible for information, culture, arts, and sports appoints the remaining eight board members, and may issue general or specific directions to the Board. The Ministry of Finance confirms TBC’s annual budget. The new Act formalises TBC’s public-service mission, authorises diversified revenue streams including advertising and partnerships, and tasks TBC with promoting Kiswahili globally, while replacing reliance on the general Public Corporations Act and the 2007 Establishment Order as TBC’s primary legal basis. The Act does not establish an independent editorial-oversight mechanism or an autonomous appointment process; decisive control over the corporation’s strategic direction and leadership remains vested with the executive. The current portfolio holder at the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts, and Sports is Paul Makonda, who presented the 2026/27 ministry budget; Prof. Palamagamba Kabudi held the portfolio during the parliamentary passage of the TBC Bill in January 2025.

Dr Ayub Rioba Chacha served as Director General from his appointment by President John Magufuli on 18 August 2016 until his retirement in March 2026, after a tenure of approximately a decade that included oversight of the parliamentary passage of the TBC Act. Rioba is a journalist and academic previously associate dean at the University of Dar es Salaam School of Journalism and Mass Communication and former chair of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)—Tanzania Chapter. The appointment of his successor lies with the President.

Source of funding and budget

TBC receives the majority of its funding from the state budget, which covers operational costs and infrastructure investments in broadcast reception. State allocations remain the primary revenue stream for both operational expenditures and the expansion of broadcasting capacity. The Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation Act, No. 3 of 2025, authorises additional revenue streams, including advertising and content partnerships; local media experts estimate that commercial activities generate less than 50% of TBC’s income. Financial disclosure is limited and not consistently easy to access; although audited statements have been available for some years, TBC does not maintain a consistently transparent, comprehensive public financial-disclosure practice.

Editorial independence

Despite being formally mandated to provide information, education, and entertainment in the public interest with independence and impartiality, TBC functions as a de facto arm of the government, reflecting official positions and routinely avoiding criticism of state authorities. The corporation lacks a statutory framework or internal charter that guarantees editorial autonomy in practice, and no independent oversight body monitors its compliance with its public-service mandate or evaluates its editorial performance. Several Tanzanian journalists and media experts have described TBC’s editorial posture as more symbolic than substantive; one reporter described it as “camouflage,” noting that “as a government employee, you can’t report against the government anywhere.”

The 29 October 2025 general election placed Tanzania’s state-aligned media landscape under unusually intense scrutiny. President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared winner with 97.66% of the vote, amid disputed turnout figures, after the two largest opposition parties, Chadema (whose leader Tundu Lissu faced treason charges) and ACT-Wazalendo (whose candidate Luhaga Mpina was disqualified on technicalities), were barred from the presidential race. The African Union Election Observation Mission noted that the election fell short of AU democratic standards, citing ballot-stuffing, expulsion of opposition agents, and obstruction of observers during counting. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported the use of live ammunition against demonstrators; an internet blackout and restrictions on social-media platforms, including X (reportedly restricted from May 2025, with official confirmation in early June 2025) and JamiiForums (blocked by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority on 6 September 2025 for 90 days), effectively constrained independent reporting and real-time monitoring. On 23 April 2026, a government-appointed commission of inquiry chaired by Mohamed Chande Othman submitted its findings to President Samia Suluhu Hassan, documenting 518 deaths across 11 regions during and after the elections, while noting that the figure may not be conclusive; the full report has not been made public, and Human Rights Watch criticised the commission for failing to establish full accountability. On 25 October 2025, Dr Rioba had described a Tanzania Editors’ Forum joint declaration of neutrality, issued alongside ITV/Radio One/Capital TV CEO Joyce Mhaville and other media executives, as “a historic moment for the country’s media fraternity.” TBC’s 2025 election role should be read against long-running concerns about state-media bias and executive control over public-service broadcasting in Tanzania, including patterns documented in previous election cycles by the Media Council of Tanzania.

Reporters Without Borders ranked Tanzania 117th of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, a drop of 22 places from 95/180 in 2025, reflecting the deterioration of legal, political, and safety conditions for journalists during the election cycle. MISA Regional has documented restrictions on opposition coverage, harassment of critics, and limited access to independent media during the election period. Freedom House named Deusdedith Soka and Dioniz Kipanya as Chadema youth activists who disappeared after being arrested by police, and reported that Ally Kibao, a senior Chadema secretariat member, was abducted in September 2024 and found dead a day later with severe acid burns to his face and other signs of torture.

AI and digital policy

TBC maintains a digital presence including the tbc.go.tz website, the TBC Online YouTube channel, and social-media accounts across major platforms. In October 2025 the corporation launched the TBC Arc (Analytical Reporting Console) on 28 October 2025, a digital system for analysing and broadcasting election results from ward, constituency, and national levels. TBC has not adopted any public-facing policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA. At the national-policy level, the Cybercrimes Act, the Electronic and Postal Communications Act, and the Online Content Regulations under the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) continue to shape the regulatory environment for digital content, with international press-freedom organisations consistently flagging their use against journalists and online critics.

May 2026