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.
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.
In a statement, Zanzibar's information ministry said that Idrissa had been working illegally as a journalist on Zanzibar and that he was being barred from practicing journalism until he complied with the island's regulations. Director of Information Ali Mwinyikai told CPJ that a 1988 Zanzibar law obliged all journalists working on the island to obtain press accreditation from his ministry, but that Idrissa had not done so. This accreditation must be renewed annually, he said.
Idrissa told CPJ that he had a press card issued by the union government of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam, and that he did not believe it was necessary to have two press cards. He and one other local journalist said that Zanzibar authorities have not routinely enforced the island's accreditation rule.
Local journalists say that the Zanzibar authorities were seeking to further muzzle the press in the run-up to general elections in October. The ruling CCM party faces a strong challenge on Zanzibar from the opposition CUF party. Previous elections there have often been marked by political violence.
The ban on Idrissa was lifted after he applied for and received press accreditation from the island’s information ministry, official sources told Agence France-Presse on June 20.
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).
Journalists and photographers had been officially ordered not to cover the event, MISA reported. According to news reports, guards and prisoners also assaulted Christopher Kidanka, information officer for the local Legal and Human Rights Centre, as well as other bystanders, and attempted to confiscate cameras and notebooks from Bukuku and Kidanka.
Home Affairs Minister Omar Ramadhan Mapuri defended the assault on Bukuku and Kidanka, saying that Prisons Department officers had used "reasonable" force in the evictions. Calling the beatings "a serious violation of media freedom by an arm of the government," the Media Owners Association of Tanzania (MOAT) called for Mapuri's resignation. Other local journalists' associations announced they were suspending all coverage of the minister.
On September 14, police announced the formation of a committee to investigate the assaults, which a police spokesman described as "criminal."
Two days later, Mapuri apologized for his statements supporting the prison wardens. However, a MOAT spokesman told The Associated Press that the organization's ban on coverage would continue "until appropriate action is taken against the minister, head of prisons, and those prison wardens who roughed up journalists who were on duty."
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.
The Swahili-language newspaper Tanzania Daima was suspended for three days for publishing a picture and caption deemed offensive to President Benjamin Mkapa. The caption, which the newspaper's management claimed was satirical, suggested that the president had trouble paying off the country's foreign debts. The newspaper is published by a media company associated with opposition presidential candidate Freeman Mbowe, according to news reports.
The weekly tabloid Amani was suspended for 28 days due to alleged ethical violations. In November, Amani published a story that appeared to link the death of a senior Tanzanian official with a woman pictured in a photograph, according to news reports. The government alleged that the story harmed the official's family, according to the local chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).
According to MISA, the Newspaper Act gives the Minister of Information wide discretionary powers to suspend or close down newspapers. "The minister may prohibit publication of any newspaper 'in the public interest' or 'in the interest of peace and good order,'" the organization reported.