Agency Report

Tanzania suspended on Sunday another newspaper accused of false stories even though President Samia Suluhu Hassan had pledged to uphold media freedoms quashed by her predecessor.

Raia Mwema, a leading Swahili-language weekly, was suspended for 30 days from Monday, for “repeatedly publishing false information and deliberate incitement,” Gerson Msigwa, the government’s chief spokesperson, said in a statement.

Msigwa cited three recent stories, including one about a gunman who killed four people in a rampage through a diplomatic quarter of Tanzania’s main city Dar es Salaam.

The article linked the gunman to ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the statement read, adding that the article violated a 2016 media law. The newspaper’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.