Tanzania

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.

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).

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.

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.