As crackdown on free press and dissident voices intensifies in Tanzania, the new regulations demand the presence of a government custodian when a foreign journalist is covering a local story. Media freedom has been under threat, the Swahili-speaking nation was ranked position 124 in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index by the Reporters without Borders. CPJ has documented the use of media shutdowns, arrests, intimidation, judicial harassment and restrictive regulations to muzzle the free press. The biggest blow to individual journalists in Tanzania was the arbitrary arrest and detention for seven months of journalist Erick Kabendera. We sought a comment from Media Council of Tanzania and Tanzanian Editors Forum but at the time of publishing, they had not replied.

Source: Standard Digital August 10, 2020 18:10 UTC