How an era of newsroom raids and banned newspapers is slowly easing in Tanzania

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For eight years, Tanzania’s police were notorious for crushing street protests with tear gas and bullets. But in recent weeks, they have switched to something unexpected: marching in front of opposition demonstrators to ensure their safety.

Political rallies were banned in 2016, as Tanzania’s long-ruling government became increasingly autocratic. With local elections approaching in October, however, President Samia Suluhu Hassan is trying to show her commitment to democratic reforms, including greater freedom for opposition politicians and journalists – a freedom that remains fragile and uncertain.

Ms. Hassan, a former vice-president, became the first female president in Tanzania’s history after the death of her authoritarian predecessor, John Magufuli, in 2021. She is seeking to carve out a separate path from Mr. Magufuli, whose government had become infamous for shutting down newspapers, disqualifying election candidates and forcing some politicians into exile.

So far, the new policy on opposition protests seems successful. Chadema, the main party challenging the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi, has held a series of marches and rallies across the country, beginning on April 22, without any apparent problems. The marches have proceeded smoothly, with police protection and cheering crowds.

Tanzania’s media, however, could be the real test of Ms. Hassan’s democratic reforms. After her predecessor took office in 2015, many journalists were harassed, intimidated or arrested. Police raided newsrooms and seized computers, and many media outlets were shut down or restricted. Over the past year, most of those restrictions have been eased – but not all the pressures of the past have disappeared.

Canada has a stake in those reforms. Since its independence, Tanzania has received about $3.4-billion in development assistance from Ottawa, including $134-million in 2020-21, making it one of the largest recipients of Canadian aid.

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The Globe and Mail interviewed four of Tanzania’s leading newspaper editors to assess the reforms. While they agreed the situation has improved, they described a mood of caution and self-censorship that still hobbles the media.

“The atmosphere of fear and anxiety among our staff is real at times,” said Martin Melera, chief editor of Tanzania Daima, a Swahili-language newspaper. “It has deterred them from chasing certain stories or investigating sensitive issues, fearing for their personal safety.”

The government ordered the closure of his newspaper for three months in 2017, and then again from 2020 to 2022. Today, it is freely published, but its journalists still sometimes suffer from government surveillance, harassment and intimidation, Mr. Melera said.

Such challenges can have a chilling effect on the newspaper’s operations. In a recent case, he said, some of his journalists got anonymous threatening phone calls after they published a story on corruption in a government agency contract. They were told to stop reporting on the subject, and they were banned from the agency’s events, Mr. Melera said.

Another newspaper, Mawio, was banned in 2017 after it reported on alleged corruption and election fraud. Its editor-in-chief, Simon Mkina, was jailed for several days, and criminal charges were filed against him and his deputy editor, forcing him to shuttle back and forth to court for years. The newspaper was banned for five years, and the criminal case dragged on for a further year until it was quietly dropped.

Financial pressure is another common tactic, both at Mawio and at other newspapers where Mr. Mkina worked during the Magufuli era. Government departments and private businesses halted their advertising, and the newspapers struggled with serious financial problems, forcing two of them to close.

Today those pressures have largely lifted, but have not ended, Mr. Mkina said.

“Some reporters are still being harassed when chasing stories on sensitive land issues,” he said. “Some officials who intimidated journalists during the Magufuli regime still hold their positions.”

Many journalists have become “praise singers,” he added: “Some journalists have completely stopped writing stories that criticize the government. They don’t want to annoy those in power. Journalists have resorted to self-censorship to stay safe. The public right to know is being crushed, and important issues are not being reported.”

An English-language Tanzanian newspaper, The Guardian, lost advertising revenue and subscribers in the Magufuli years because businesses and readers were afraid of reprisals if they associated with dissenting voices. Today, while the harshest repression has ended, there are still lingering fears that persuade journalists to constrain themselves, according to The Guardian’s managing editor, Wallace Maugo.

“It’s a delicate balancing act we face as journalists in Tanzania, trying to navigate between our commitment to truth-telling and the very real dangers that come with it,” he said.

“There are certain stories that many of us might shy away from, either out of fear of reprisals or simply due to the prevailing atmosphere of paranoia. Investigations into corruption involving high-ranking officials or powerful individuals in business can often be seen as risky. We might also steer clear of reporting on sensitive political issues, especially if it involves criticizing the government or questioning its policies.”

Many Tanzanian newspapers are still reliant on government advertising, and this can make them reluctant to do anything that could jeopardize this revenue, Mr. Maugo added.

Deodatus Balile, editor-in-chief of Jamhuri newspaper, recalls how the government used taxation to punish media outlets in the Magufuli era. The tax authorities froze his newspaper’s bank account in 2019, forcing it to cut salaries and lay off employees. Since then, the situation has improved, but the climate of fear has left an “indelible mark” in the minds of many journalists, he said.

“It’s like they’ve been conditioned to hold back,” said Mr. Balile, who is chair of the Tanzania Editors Forum.

“Many journalists have virtually stopped investigating corruption allegations involving high-ranking officials, or reporting on human rights abuses, out of fear of reprisals. Some choose to skip certain details or tone down their language to avoid offending the president and her government. It often results in watered-down, incomplete or biased reporting.”

His own newspaper has defied the pressures. It pushed ahead with a recent corruption investigation that led to the arrest of government officials.

There is only one solution, he believes: “to boldly report without fear or favour.”

With a report from Geoffrey York in Johannesburg