Saturday, 06 September 2025
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** Tanzania's election by elimination
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Social media activist Edgar Mwakabela, better known as Sativa, shouldn’t be alive today. In an interview ([link removed]) with the BBC this week he spoke about how he was abducted last June in Tanzania's main city Dar es Salaam and later taken to a remote area. His captors interrogated him about his activism and his criticism of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party. He was tortured and shot in the head. The bullet went through his skull and shattered his jaw. He was meant to die. Somehow he didn’t. That he still has a voice is the only positive part of this grim story.

It’s made all the grimmer by the fact that it stands out because of Sativa’s survival. It’s unlike the story of Ali Mohamed Kibao ([link removed]) , whose body was found beaten and doused with acid last September. It’s unlike Modestus Timbisimilwa, who was shot dead ([link removed]) by police last November as he tried to stop interference at polling stations. It’s unlike George Juma Mohamed and Steven Chalamila, both killed ([link removed]) in their own homes the night before. All were part of the opposition.

Tanzania goes to the polls next month but as these examples show it’s insulting to suggest the elections will be remotely free or fair. The CCM have been in power for decades, ever since colonial rule ended in Tanzania in the 1960s. They are currently led by Samia Suluhu Hassan ([link removed]) , who proceeded the increasingly autocratic John Magufuli, a regular on the pages of Index (see here ([link removed]) , here ([link removed]) and here ([link removed]) ). When Hassan first took office as Tanzania’s president, there was cautious optimism that the rights landscape would improve – and it did for a bit. Gains were made in the realms of media freedom and protest rights. A ban on opposition gatherings was lifted. The tide has however turned.

The main opposition party, Chadema, has been barred ([link removed]) from participating in the election. Chadema’s leader, Tundu Lissu, is currently in jail ([link removed]) charged with treason, after he called for electoral reforms.

In addition to those who’ve been killed or jailed are the many disappeared. Posters of the missing have become a pre-election fixture. One high-profile case is that of artist Shadrack Chaula, who last July was imprisoned for an online video in which he allegedly “insulted” Hassan. He paid a hefty fine in exchange for his freedom only to disappear ([link removed]) a month later. Another is Deusdedith Soka, a 30-year-old Chadema youth leader who disappeared last August ([link removed]) after calling for a demonstration precisely against disappearances.

Hassan has condemned many of these brutal acts, denied any involvement and called for investigations. But they’re still happening under her watch in a country she leads. Last year Lissu said ([link removed]) that Hassan “has done with a smile what Magufuli did with a snarl.” Compared to the execrable Magufuli, who was nicknamed the “bulldozer”, we’ve paid little attention to her. It’s clear that needs to change.


Jemimah Steinfeld

CEO, Index on Censorship


** More from Index
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From Canada to Georgia: The week in free expression ([link removed])

A round-up of the key stories covering censorship and free expression from the past seven days ([link removed])

These anti-protest laws are what we expect in Putin’s Russia ([link removed])

A personal piece by Peter Tatchell on how UK protest rights are being shattered ([link removed])

Malian writer Étienne Fakaba Sissoko forced into exile ([link removed])

Acclaimed economist and writer forced to flee country with his family ([link removed])

The arrest of Graham Linehan is a cop and ball story ([link removed])

The Father Ted writer was arrested on arrival in the UK over historic tweets on trans people ([link removed])

The rise of the newsfluencer under Donald Trump ([link removed])

What does the erosion of the press amid a rise in citizen journalism mean for US democracy? ([link removed])

The so-called trial of Jimmy Lai ([link removed])

How the Hong Kong and Chinese authorities use linguistic trickery to undermine opponents ([link removed])

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** Truth, trust and tricksters in the age of AI
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As AI rapidly transforms society, the truth is becoming ever harder to discern, raising questions about our trust in journalism, politics, academia, and even history. How do we operate in the mirror world of AI and identify the truth tellers from the tricksters?

Join us for a panel discussion on Wednesday 1 October at City St George’s, University of London.
LEARN MORE ([link removed])


** From Canada to Georgia: The week in free expression ([link removed])
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** >> CANADA: ([link removed]) Alberta pauses ban on “sexually explicit” books in school libraries ([link removed])
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** >> GEORGIA: ([link removed]) Sentencing of protestors is an abuse of justice to silence dissent ([link removed])
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** >> USA: ([link removed]) Nigel Farage challenged during bumpy US congressional hearing ([link removed])
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** >> UK: ([link removed]) Conservatives ban Byline Times from party conference ([link removed])
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** >> NEPAL: ([link removed]) Authorities order ban on major social media platforms ([link removed])
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** >> EUROPE: ([link removed]) The European Anti SLAPP Monitor is launched ([link removed])
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** >> BELARUS: ([link removed]) British citizen sentenced to seven years in a penal colony ([link removed])
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** Flashback
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Don’t tell us what to write ([link removed])

by Margaret Atwood ([link removed])

Volume 39, Issue 4 ([link removed])

“The mark of a society approaching freedom is the space allowed to the far-ranging human imagination and to the unfettered human voice.”

This week, the Alberta government was forced to pause ([link removed]) a controversial order for the removal of books deemed “sexually explicit” from school libraries. If the order had gone ahead, books such as Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale would have been taken down from school shelves. Today, we look back at an essay by Atwood written for Index in 2010 on why the mark of a truly free society is one that allows writers to speak with their own voice. Read the story here. ([link removed])


** Support our work
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The world is becoming more authoritarian and our work calling out human rights abuses and promoting freedom of expression in countries such as Tanzania, the UK, Mali and the USA has never been more important.

By supporting Index on Censorship today, you can help us in our work with censored artists, jailed musicians, journalists under threat and dissidents facing torture or worse.

Please donate today ([link removed])

Photos by: (Samia Suluhu Hassan) GCIS/CC BY-ND 2.0; (Margaret Atwood) Collision Conf/CC BY 2.0

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