THE Public Relations Society of Tanzania (PRST) has commended President Samia Suluhu Hassan for her bold warning to a section of Ministers bent on engaging their own Public Relations Officers, instead of those employed by the government to brand themselves.
The President of the Public Relations Society of Tanzania, (PRST), Mr Assah Mwambene said PRST has received the President’s statement with a positive note, saying the Head of State demonstrated to be serious on the roles of Public Relations Officers.
“We have received the President’s statement with a positive note. Her statement signifies that the Head of State is serious on upholding a Public Relations profession to the next level,” Mwambene noted.
Mr Mwambene, a former Director of Information and Chief Government spokesman, said his organisation has convened a working workshop on March 18, 2023 to deliberate on the President’s statement.
He said the meeting will involve all Public Relations officers from both the government and private institutions, to deliberate on the preliminary report on the challenges facing the government communications’ units in the wake of ministers hiring their own press corps.
“The President has raised a very pertinent issue aimed at safeguarding the work of communications and Public Relations professionals in the country,” said Mwambene, noting that we need to find the root cause of the problem.
PRST, which is an organisation bringing public and private Public Relations practitioners onboard in the country, has commissioned a purpose for the communication sector-wide audit and end user content analysis to determine the magnitude of the problem raised by the President.
He noted however, that PROs should strive to do their jobs to brand the government policies, issues and agenda rather than adoring and promoting political leaders and their ministries.
In principle, Mwambene said the role of the PROs in the government is to brand the authority and institutions they work for, saying the recent trend has shown that pictures of individual leaders and Chief Executive officers are the most branded rather than the government.
Mwambene’s comment follows a statement made by President Samia Suluhu Hassan that some of the Government Communication Units were doing nothing while a section of Ministers were using their own press corps to brand and publicise themselves.
PRST is a Public Relations Professional Body drawing membership from Information, Communications, and Public Relations Professionals from both government and private institutions.
