Committee to Protect Journalists - Tanzania

Obama should raise press freedom in Africa food talks

2012-05-16T18:24:51Z

New York, May 16, 2012--President Obama should acknowledge the role that independent news reporting plays in assessing agricultural challenges and facilitating the response to famine, the Committee to Protect Journalists stated in a letter to the White House. Ethiopia in particular downplays the extent of food crises and undermines the ability of donor nations and aid groups to help by denying journalists access to sensitive areas and censoring independent coverage.

In Tanzania, two journalists charged with incitement

2011-12-22T21:27:47Z

New York, December 22, 2011--Authorities in Tanzania have arrested and charged a columnist and an editor with inciting the police force to subordinate in connection with an editorial critical of the government, according to local journalists and news reports. The printer of the publication has also been summoned to court twice in relation to the article.

Attacks on the Press 2009: Africa Developments

2010-02-16T05:02:50Z

Leading investigative weekly suspended in Tanzania

2010-01-12T18:01:29Z

New York, January 12, 2010—The Committee to Protect Journalists called today for the suspension of independent weekly Swahili newspaper Kulikoni to be lifted immediately. Information Minister George Mkuchika announced the suspension of the leading investigative weekly on Friday, citing a sales and distribution ban for a period of 90 days beginning January 11, according to local journalists and news reports.

The ruling was linked to a November 27, 2009, story that alleged cheating in the national exams for the Tanzania People’s Defense Forces, the managing editor of Dar-es-Salaam-based Kulikoni, Evarist Mwitumba, told CPJ.

Attacks on the Press in 2008: Africa Developments

2009-02-10T05:53:00Z

TANZANIA: Government bans private weekly

2008-12-18T22:39:51Z

MwanaHalisi
CENSORED

OCTOBER 13, 2008

The Ministry of Information, Sports, and Culture banned the private weekly MwanaHalisi for three months starting October 13, for “inciting public hatred against the president.”

Tanzania detains popular Web site editors

2008-02-29T17:00:00Z

New York, February 29, 2008—CPJ condemns the arbitrary arrest of two popular online editors without charge. The two were detained and interrogated for 24 hours in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on February 18, in what observers of the case say was a politically motivated attempt to shutter the site.

The two young editors, Maxence Mello and Mike Mushi, aged 21 and 18 respectively, host the extremely popular Jambo Forums, a public discussion site with more than 2,000 members and 6 million hits in February alone. Topics on the site cover everything from politics to culture to entertainment. Police confiscated three computers used to host their Web site, shutting down the site for five days while the equipment remained under police custody, Mello told CPJ.

Suspects held in Tanzanian newsroom attack

2008-01-08T17:00:00Z

New York, January 8, 2008—Police in Dar-es-Salaam said Monday that they had two suspects in custody after armed men stormed the newsroom of a popular vernacular newspaper and seriously injured two top journalists, according to local reporters and news accounts.

Managing Editor Saed Kubenea of the Kiswahili-language Mwana Halisi and veteran journalist Ndimara Tegambwage, a consultant with the weekly, were preparing this week’s edition when three men armed with a machete and an unidentified chemical broke down the newsroom door and assaulted them at 9 p.m. local time Saturday, according to the same sources. The assailants splashed a chemical in Kubenea’s eyes and struck him in the face with a stone, Tegambwage told CPJ. Persistent eye pain forced doctors at Dar-es-Salaam’s main Muhimbili Hospital to transfer Kubenea to India for further treatment, according to local journalists. Tegambwage was hit on the side of the head with a machete, causing a wound requiring 15 stitches.

TANZANIA

2005-12-02T17:00:00Z

DECEMBER 2, 2005
Post January 4, 2006

Tanzania Daima
Amani
CENSORED

Amid preparations for delayed national elections, the government ordered two local newspapers to temporarily cease publishing, accusing both of violating the 1976 Newspaper Act.

TANZANIA

2005-09-10T16:00:00Z

SEPTEMBER 10, 2005
Posted: September 21, 2005

Mpoki Bukuku, The Sunday Citizen
ATTACKED

A group of prison wardens and prisoners acting on their orders assaulted Bukuku, chief photographer for the private Sunday Citizen, as he attempted to cover the eviction of families from houses that were being repossessed by the Tanzanian Prisons Department. The houses were purchased by the prisons department in 2002 from the Air Tanzania Co., but the families were challenging the repossession in court, according to the local chapter of the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA).

Zanzibar government bars critical journalist from working

2005-06-10T16:00:00Z

New York, June 10, 2005—Authorities on the semi-autonomous Tanzanian island of Zanzibar have banned political columnist Jabir Idrissa from writing, saying he was working without permission. Idrissa told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he believes he was banned for criticizing the Zanzibar government.

The Zanzibar-based Idrissa is a well-known political columnist for the weekly, Swahili language newspaper Rai. The newspaper is based on the Tanzanian mainland, but sells on Zanzibar. Idrissa told CPJ he had been writing the column for about a year and that it had criticized the Zanzibar government for human rights abuses and bad governance.

TANZANIA

2005-06-09T16:00:00Z

JUNE 9, 2005
Updated: June 24, 2005

Jabir Idrissa, Rai
CENSORED

Authorities on the semi-autonomous Tanzanian island of Zanzibar banned political columnist Jabir Idrissa from writing, saying he was working without permission. Idrissa told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he believes he was banned for criticizing the Zanzibar government.

Court ruling keeps Zanzibar independent paper closed

2004-11-30T17:00:00Z

New York, November 30, 2004—The popular weekly Dira, Zanzibar's only independent newspaper, remains shuttered after a court refused to reverse a one-year-old government ban. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on authorities to lift the "outrageous" ban, and repeal laws that allow the government to silence critical reporting.

The High Court on Tanzania's semi-autonomous island ruled November 24 that Dira had violated registration procedures, rebuffing an effort by the newspaper to overturn the ban.

Attacks on the Press 2003: Africa Analysis

2004-03-11T17:08:25Z

Although the number of journalists in prison in Africa at the end of 2003 was lower than the previous year, African journalists still faced a multitude of difficulties, including government harassment and physical assaults. Many countries in Africa retain harsh press laws. In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, some countries have also moved to introduce tough antiterrorist legislation, which journalists fear could be used to stifle civil liberties, including press freedom. For example, Uganda, which faces a rebellion in the north, used its antiterrorism law in 2003 to shutter a radio station for more than a month.

Zanzibari government bans newspaper

2003-11-25T17:00:00Z

New York, November 25, 2003—The government of Zanzibar, a semiautonomous island off the coast of Tanzania, has ordered the indefinite suspension of the independent weekly Dira, according to local journalists and international press reports. Dira, the island's most popular newspaper, has been highly critical of the government.

Editor Ali Nabwa told CPJ that Dira received a letter on Monday, November 24, from Zanzibar Minister of State Salim Juma Osman ordering the paper closed under a 1988 Act that empowers the government to shutter a paper it deems a "threat to national security." According to Nabwa, the letter did not say why Dira might be a threat to national security. Nabwa denied the charge and said Dira would seek a court injunction next week to allow it to resume publishing.