With 257 newspapers, 200 radio stations, 46 TV channels, 474 online TV channels and around 100 news websites at the start of 2022, Tanzania has a rich and dynamic media landscape. YouTube channels like Ayo TV and Global TV are increasingly popular, but they tend to favour entertainment over independent and quality news reporting.

Many media outlets are owned by politicians or are influenced by them. This undermines editorial independence and results in biased coverage. The government systematically blocks access to state-held information of public interest when it concerns security or development issues. Criticism of the ruling authorities is poorly received and can lead to the suspension of media outlets.

The media sector in Tanzania is governed by several laws and regulations, most of which were enacted between 2016 and 2020, and are considered obstacles to press freedom. The 2016 Media Services Act criminalises defamation and gives the government the power to suspend a newspaper. The national security law allows authorities to take action against any article relating to classified information. Publishing unofficial statistics is also punishable by fines and jail time. Since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, publishing unapproved information about a “deadly or contagious disease” and reproducing content from foreign media without prior permission are prohibited. The new government has been slow to keep its promises to amend this oppressive and draconian legislation.

Journalists are paid little and their jobs are precarious. The government plays a major role in the economy of the media. Privately owned newspapers often get between 40 and 80% of their income from state advertising. Those that stray from the government line see these resources evaporate. The minister of information announced in February 2022 that the government would distribute its advertising more fairly but, so far, this promise has proven to be hollow.

A widespread culture of silence makes it very difficult to do investigative reporting on issues of public interest, and the coronavirus pandemic has only reinforced this climate. President Magufuli decided to stop providing information about the pandemic’s spread in Tanzania, while at the same time referring openly in his speeches to the theory of a “conspiracy of the West”.

Media outlets and journalists that criticise the authorities risk suspensions and arrest, and even abduction, as was the case of a journalist in 2022. The authorities displayed absolutely no concern about Azory Gwanda, a journalist who disappeared in November 2017 while investigating the murders of local officials. It is not rare for journalists reporting on protests to be arrested.