Three Tanzanian reporters got killed during election protests, and journalist Maneno Selanyika's family had to hold his funeral without finding his body after checking hospitals and morgues. Master Tindwa Mtopa from Clouds Media got shot at his house in Dar es Salaam, while Baraka FM's Kelvin Lameck died down in Mbeya. President Samia Suluhu Hassan claimed she won with 98 percent of the votes, and then the government cracked down on demonstrators during a five-day internet shutdown that left somewhere between hundreds and three thousand people dead.
The Committee to Protect Journalists talked to about twenty local reporters who said everyone is terrified to publish anything critical because treason charges get thrown around like candy. Ayo TV bureau chief Godfrey Thomas Ng'omba got arrested on election day, charged with treason alongside 55 other people, and then released after authorities dropped hundreds of cases following orders from the president. Foreign media outlets got their accreditation requests denied, and the government refuses to confirm death tolls or address claims about mass graves.
The Committee to Protect Journalists talked to about twenty local reporters who said everyone is terrified to publish anything critical because treason charges get thrown around like candy. Ayo TV bureau chief Godfrey Thomas Ng'omba got arrested on election day, charged with treason alongside 55 other people, and then released after authorities dropped hundreds of cases following orders from the president. Foreign media outlets got their accreditation requests denied, and the government refuses to confirm death tolls or address claims about mass graves.
