56 TANZANIA The government has enacted some legislation which guarantees and support media freedom, such as the Access to Information Act of 2016 and the Media Services Act, No 12, 2016. It is these and other laws such as the Statistics Act and Cybercrime Act, both of 2015, that critics question and challenge that they do not conform to international standards. CENSORSHIP By Sengiyumva Gasirigwa In recent years Tanzania has witnessed tremendous changes in the number of media outlets in the country as a result of technological advancement and the eagerness of people to own, collect and share information. Over 230 publications have been registered by February 2020 and these include daily and weekly newspapers, periodicals, magazines and journals. Records also show that over 180 radio stations, 43 TV stations, 26 simulcasting radio services, 21 online radio services, six simulcasting TV services, 264 online TV services, 85 online blogs, 30 web blogs and six online forums have been licenced by mid-2020. About 15 publishing companies and 20 advertising companies/ agencies are operating in Tanzania. By late 2018, internet penetration in Tanzania had reached 43%, with about 49% of mobile phone subscribers using the internet, translating into 23.14 million out of 43.62 million mobile subscribers. GUARANTEES ON MEDIA FREEDOM Media freedom in Tanzania is guaranteed under article 18 of the constitution that stipulates that “every person has the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and to seek, receive and impart or disseminate information and ideas through any media regardless of national frontiers, and also has the right to freedom from interference with his communications.” Free expression and media freedom in Tanzania have been on decline resulting from both external and internal factors. External factors include problems with the implementation of media and access to information laws, policy and media regulation enforcement, physical and verbal harassment. Internal factors include lack of unity among media practitioners, low levels of professionalism, minimal or no engagement from academia and inadequate support from stakeholders. Numerous cases of violations of the basic rights of media and journalists have created uncertainties in the media and resulted in restrictions to journalists’ freedom of expression, threats, and insecurity. (113) These cases are documented by media organisations locally and abroad. (114) Tanzania has dropped 25 places on the World Press Freedom Index (115) since 2018. This is largely due to the unfriendly legal framework that has caused the shrinking space of freedom of expression and media in the country. The enactment and implementation of the legislation listed above has enabled online and offline regulations, (116) and created unfavourable conditions for journalists and media to freely exercise their obligations. (117) Consequently, media and journalists exercise strict self-censorship to avoid contradicting the government agenda and attacks from powerful individuals. Overall, there is a lack of diversity of views in the media; journalists and media are free to praise but hardly question or criticise the bureaucrats. (118) Journalists in small towns, community media practitioners and citizen journalists in rural areas often work without necessary ‘accreditation’ documents, neither from the media houses they represent nor the country’s body responsible for issuing press cards, the Tanzania Information Services. In most cases, journalists in these areas work without any contracts stipulating their rights such