African Media Barometer Tanzania 2019 Summary In 2015, Tanzania held general elections that brought the incumbent President John Pombe Magufuli to power. He quickly gained widespread support for his anti-corruption drive that has seen many officials removed from office. The new administration has also vigorously taken measures to increase discipline in the public service. However, President Magufuli’s approach to power, and more particularly to freedom of speech and press freedom, have become a significant cause for concern. He has severely tightened his grip on power and centralised decisionmaking to supposedly deliver a popular agenda: opposition political parties have been constrained, critics of government have been arrested as a result, and the fundamental right of freedom of expression has been negatively affected. These worrying trends are part of a broader shift in Tanzania over the past four years. Although Tanzania has a constitution that provides for basic civil and political rights, including freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, these rights have suffered. In a span of three years since 2015, several media laws were passed, including the 2016 Media Services Act, which has severe gaps and weaknesses that limit freedom of expression. The Act gives the government broad authority over media content and the licensing of media outlets and journalists. The Act also prescribes harsh penalties, including prison terms, for the publication of defamatory, seditious, or other illegal content. By the time of the panel discussion, a recent amendment of the National Statistics Act (2015) required that before any person or organisation released data publicly, it needed prior approval by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This was amended in the second half of 2019 and it is therefore no longer illegal to publish statistical information without prior government authorisation, yet official statistics continue to require NBS approval. In March 2019, prior to the most recent amendment, the law was used to impose a seven-day ban on the privately-owned newspaper the Citizen, on accusations that it published reports that were false, misleading and seditious. The newspaper had published a story about the depreciation of the Tanzanian Shilling (TZS) against the United States Dollar (US$). In March 2018, the government issued the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations, which require bloggers and owners of online discussion platforms and streaming services to pay over US$900 per year in registration fees. The regulations were issued under Section 103 (1) of the Electronic and Postal Communications Act (2010). The regulations also grant sweeping powers of content removal to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, Tanzania’s communications regulator. These powers contain no safeguards against abuse. For example, the fees imposed by the regulations led to a brief closure of Jamii Forums, a popular news site and social media platform, in 2018. The regulations also make 6 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER TANZANIA 2019