The authorities of Tanzania have ordered the suspension for six months of the license of an independent newspaper for violating journalistic ethics, after it published a report claiming that the vice president, Emmanuel Nchimni, had refused to resign after distancing himself from the president, Samia Suluhu Hassan.
According to the regulatory body, the text was published without respecting the obligation to properly verify the data or to maintain balance among the consulted sources. "Several deficiencies in compliance with journalistic standards were detected, including lack of precision and care in the editing of the news," it has pointed out.
The sanction, which affects both the print edition and the digital version of the newspaper, began to be applied this Wednesday, after a hearing held on August 7 in which the media was able to present the circumstances surrounding the preparation and dissemination of the article, according to 'The Citizen'.
This measure is framed in a context of tightening government pressure in Tanzania after the October elections, in which the current head of state, Samia Suluhu Hassan, emerged victorious, elections accompanied by massive protests over the exclusion of key opposition figures.
A commission headed by former judge Mohamed Chamed Othma concluded that, by the end of 2025, more than 500 people lost their lives in Tanzania due to "unnatural causes," mostly from gunshot wounds, in the context of the protests following the elections, which were deemed irregular by the African Union.