Tanzanian newspaper suspended for ‘insulting president’
Tanzanian president John Magufuli delivers a speech during the swearing in ceremony in Dar es Salaam, on November 5, 2015. Mwanahalisi newspaper has been suspended for two years for insulting the president. AFP PHOTO | DANIEL HAYDUK
By AFP
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NAIROBI
An independent Tanzanian newspaper has been suspended for two years, a government spokesman said Tuesday, accusing the publication of sedition and endangering national security.
The critical Mwanahalisi newspaper was shut after publishing a letter on Monday from a reader containing “insults” against President John Magufuli and his government, said spokesman Hassan Abbasi.
Abbasi said the paper had received several warnings. The daily has been shuttered on several occasions in the past, for three months in 2008 and then three years between 2012 and 2015.
PATRIOT
The offending letter said that Magufuli “claims to be a patriot but questions the patriotism of anyone who opposes him. This is hypocritical.”
Mocking Magufuli’s regular calls for people to pray for him, the article asks if in fact one should not rather pray for opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu who was shot and injured earlier this month.