The International Press Institute continues to express deep concern over the deteriorating press freedom situation in Tanzania ahead of the visit of its executive director to the East African nation and its semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago.
In a disturbing trend, two newspapers and two radio stations were suspended this year in Tanzania and more than half dozen journalists have been attacked in the past 14 months, including the killing of a journalist covering a political rally in a rural area outside of Dar es Salaam in September 2012 and the hanging of a radio journalist earlier this year. The killings were the first recorded for journalists in the country since IPI began keeping records in 1997.
Over four days, IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie will meet in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar with journalists from both private and state-owned media, NGOs and diplomatic representatives from the United Kingdom and the United States to discuss the media situation in Tanzania. The topics include: Attacks against journalists; proposed changes to the 1976 Newspaper Registration Act that would increase fines against journalists deemed to have violated the code of ethics; self-censorship; and promises by government officials to introduce a Media Services Bill and a Right to Information Bill.
The Media Services Bill, according to press reports, would override other media regulation deemed repressive and would ensure press freedom as guaranteed by the Tanzanian Constitution.* The Right to Information Bill has yet to be realised despite five years of pledges by the ruling party to implement it.
While in Dar es Salaam, Bethel McKenzie will also address the government-ordered, temporary suspension of Mwananchi newspaper, part of Nation Media Group in Nairobi; and Mtanzania, owned by New Habari Ltd. The newspapers were suspended on Sept. 28 based on complaints that the popular Swahili publications violated secrecy and sedition laws.
Mwananchi was prohibited from publishing through Oct. 10 while Mtanzania was ordered off the streets until the end of December.
In 2012, the government indefinitely suspended another Swahili-language newspaper, MwanaHalisi.
In February, regulators ordered two FM stations – Kwa Neema and Iman – off the air for six months in part for allegedly encouraging the nation’s Muslims not to participate in a national census.
“The International Press Institute, and indeed its partners around the world, are worried about recent developments in a country that has prided itself on free and robust news media,” said Bethel McKenzie. “There have not only been two murders of journalists in the past 14 months, but we are seeing more and more media suspended on charges of sedition and the potential to incite violence against the state.
“And adding insult to injury, the country’s prime minister has been quoted as endorsing violence against journalists, telling parliament in June, according to newspaper reports, ‘I am saying beat them up … because there is not any other way … for we are tired of them,’” Bethel McKenzie added.
Repeated requests for meetings with President Jakaya Kikwete and with Dr. Fenella Mukangara, minister of information, youth, culture and sports, have so far gone unanswered.
Bethel McKenzie’s visit will be followed by a report to be released in December.
