Tanzania 
Censorship turning systematic in Tanzania

afrol.com, 26 September - The Tanzanian government has banned a gospel cassette by evangelist Faustin Munishi, a Tanzanian based in Kenya. The government argues that the cassette, titled Mpende Adui (Love the Enemy), has political sentiments. Reports on politically based censorship in Tanzania are increasing.

* On Friday 22 September 2000, evangelist Munishi said in Nairobi that his life was in danger following the ban. He said he had been forced to flee his country after word reached him that the police were looking for him. The police, he added, had impounded his cassettes and arrested hundreds of vendors found selling the tape. He vowed to continue "preaching the word of God" despite threats and intimidation. 

* In August, the authorities in Tanzania banned a book that details the 1998 massacre of four Muslim youths by police. The order banning the book - Mwembechai Killings and the Political Future of Tanzania - was contained in the official government gazette released on August 4. Signed by President Benjamin Mkapa, the order prohibits with immediate effect the sale or distribution of the book, which is yet to reach the Tanzanian book market.

"The book provides unsettling details about religious discrimination in a country which is thought by many as setting a shining example to the rest of the world," a synopsis of the book reads. The riots in 1998 had been instigated by a violent confrontation between Muslims and armed police that resulted in several deaths and arrests. Muslim women who were held in remand after the riots complained of sexual molestation by the police while their male colleagues complained of torture and brutality at the hands of state security machinery. 

* In May, the police in Tanzania's Kigoma Region arrested three Muslim activists and confiscated at least 77 tape cassettes containing speeches against government leaders and other religions. 

The confiscated cassettes apparently exhorted voters not to elect Christian candidates in the coming general multi-party elections in October this year and advised voters to remove the existing government from power in the next elections. All three suspects appeared before the Kigoma regional court on seditious charges. They were also charged with behaving in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace.

* In 1999, two journalists were arrested on charges of sedition; one of the journalists was sentenced upon first appearing in court, but the second, who was indicted for not revealing a source, was held without bail for approximately 1 week. In December 1999, a Magistrate's Court sentenced the Reverend Christopher Mtikila to 1 year in prison for allegedly seditious comments he made in 1997. 

Human rights and censorship in Tanzania
In general, the human rights record of the Tanzanian government is considered to be poor. The government infringes on citizens' privacy rights and limited freedom of speech and of the press, and freedom of assembly, association, and movement. 

There is no official censorship, but the government continues to pressure newspapers to suppress or change articles unfavorable to it. Various laws, such as the Newspaper Act and the Broadcasting Act, limit the media's ability to function effectively. Government ministers and the Registrar of Newspapers pressure journalists to practice self-censorship. 

Source: Based on MISA

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