Tanzanian government bans nation’s largest Newspaper

DAR ES SALAAM – Yesterday, Tanzanian newspaper stands welcomed back an old friend: Mwananchi newspaper returned from a two-week government-imposed hiatus.

On September 27, Tanzania’s Director of Information, Assah Mwambene, announced that he would be temporarily banning the paper, because of stories intended to influence “the citizens to lose confidence in State organizations.”

One of the most widely-read newspapers in Northern Africa, Mwananchi…

Media Council condemns closure of two major Newspapers

PRESS RELEASE
 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 Media Council condemns closure of two major newspapers
The Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) unreservedly condemns the Government’s decision to close down two national newspapers Mwananchi and Mtanzania, for allegedly publishing seditious stories likely to provoke incitement and hostility with the intention of influencing the public to lose confidence in state organs and create disharmony.

.Mwananchi has been shut…

Critical website Radio Katwe blocked on eve of presidential election

UGANDA: Critical Web site still blocked on eve of presidential election

New York, February 22, 2006 – The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned that the Ugandan government has blocked internal access to a critical Web site, Radio Katwe, in the run-up to Thursday’s hotly contested presidential election. The site has been blocked in Uganda for more than a week, according…

Government temporarily closes radio stations

Four radio stations closed in Uganda

The Government of Republic of Uganda closed four independently-owned radio stations today and suspended their operating licenses for what it called “flouting rules by inciting people, mainly the Baganda tribe, against President Yoweri Museveni, his government and against other tribes”.

Friday, 11 September 2009, by Eastern Africa Journalists Association, EAJA

According to the Uganda Journalists Union (UJU),…

Uganda bans SMS texting of key words during poll

An Electoral Commission (EC) worker prepares election materials at the main warehouse in the capital Kampala February 16, 2011. Security tightened in Kampala on Wednesday as voters in carnival-like mood descended on the final rallies of Uganda’s two main presidential contenders. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

An Electoral Commission (EC) worker prepares election materials at the main warehouse in the capital Kampala February 16,…

UK, US ‘hacked into Uganda’s phone network’

British and American intelligence agencies remotely hacked into Uganda’s telephone network system in order to access conversations of high-profile individuals in Uganda, a new report has revealed.

The report offers insight into the murky practice of foreign intelligence collection by Britain and America who remotely access data and conversations on personal computers, phones, routers, hard disks and mobile phone SIM cards…

Brace yourselves Ugandan Internet Users

Anti Pornography Act 2014?

Its official, the Anti Pornography bill was finally consented to and is now the Anti Pornography Act 2014. It has been a long time coming.

From the time this bill was made public knowledge, our local media decided either intentionally or out of ignorance to brand it the ‘Mini-Skirt Bill”. Just like many others, I was fully convinced…

Law requiring registration of SIM cards

Law requiring registration of SIM cards in Uganda a threat to privacy
(HRNJ-Uganda/IFEX) – 21 September 2012 – The Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) calls upon the Ugandan government to immediately halt the registration of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, due to the lack of a necessary law to protect the data collected. The process is a curtailment of freedom…

UCC suspends two radio talk shows

The Uganda Communication Commission has suspended two poplar political talk shows on Hits FM, a local radio station in Fort Portal.

Orukurato and Ekitanganzo have been airing on Hits FM since February last year. The panel on both talk shows includes district and municipal council leaders, MPs, human rights activists and civil society activists.

The shows have been focusing on accountability of…

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill – a great blow to internet freedom
One month after Nigeria’s president signed into law a harsh law criminalising sexual minorities, Uganda has followed suit by signing it’s own “anti-gay”, as dubbed by the media, bill. Joining Tanzania, Mauritania, Sudan and Sierra Leone, Uganda and Nigeria have join the club of countries in the continent where the LGBT…