TANZANIA: AMECEA Journalists Must Comply with ICT
Participants of ICT Workshop organized by AMECEA for Tanzania Episcopal Conference with Bishop Chairman of Communications for Tanzania Rt. Rev. Eusebius Nzigilwa, TEC Secretary General Fr. Charles Kitima and AMECEA Secretary General Fr. Anthony Makunde
Catholic journalists have been urged to update themselves to the latest Information Communication Technologies (ICT) so as to keep pace with the global change in the context of new evangelization.
Bishop Euzebius Nzigirwa, Chairman of Communications Commission at Tanzania Episcopal Conference TEC, made this statement while opening the Information Communication Training (ICT) Workshop for directors of Communication Departments from different Catholic Dioceses in Tanzania.
At a workshop which was held in Dar es Salaam organized by AMECEA Communications Department, Rt. Rev. Nzigirwa, who is also Auxiliary Bishop of Dar es Salaam Archdiocese said that the Church cannot isolate itself from the whole issue of globalization but rather focus on how best to contribute content on Church media.
“We cannot separate ourselves from globalization and advancement of technology. However, in this we must be careful and never compromise our Catholic values,” he said while adding: “Our news must aim at educating and informing all groups of people within the community.”
In his greetings to the members, AMECEA Secretary General, Fr Anthony Makunde said the Department of Communications is central to evangelisation and highlighted some of the AMECEA Bishops’ resolution on social communication during their July 2018 Plenary meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where they mandated Communication Departments in all the dioceses to enable the Church to achieve its goals of evangelization in the digital environment.
He said in order to give everyone the right to access spiritual information, it is time now for Church media to post Church information and documents in local languages such as Kiswahili.
He also expressed his hope that Church media in Tanzania will help in the preparations for the next AMECEA Plenary meeting which is expected to take place in Tanzania in 2022.
“We are grateful that AMECEA now returns to its birth as its founding began in Msimbazi Centre Tanzania in 1961, so the meeting in 2022 will be 60 years since its inception,” he said.
TEC Secretary General, Fr. Charles Kitima emphasized the importance of all communications departments under AMECEA to include on their websites the Holy Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, to reach more people quickly.
However, he cautioned that communication technologies should be used more effectively to prevent the misconceptions and manipulations that might be caused by people who do not wish the Church good.
At the workshop, the facilitators were experts from AMECEA, including Communications Director Fr Andrew Kaufa, Head of the Communication Technology Unit (IT) Mr. Bernard Mberere, and Mr Peter Kyalo an IT expert from Nairobi University.
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By Sarah Pelaji & Dalphina Rubyema
