Govt. licenses 109 newspapers by the set October 31 deadline
Chief government spokesperson, Dr Hassan Abbas
What you need to know:
- A statement issued by the chief government spokesperson, Dr Hassan Abbas, says that 85 out of the 109 registered newspapers were re-licensed to continue being produced, while the other 24 are newly-licensed.
Dar es Salaam. The government of Tanzania had registered a total of 109 newspapers by the October 31 registration deadline it set two months ago.
A statement issued by the chief government spokesperson, Dr Hassan Abbas, says that 85 out of the 109 registered newspapers were re-licensed to continue being produced, while the other 24 are newly-licensed.
“After completing the first phase of registration and licensing of newspapers, unlicensed institutions are prohibited to issue publications until when they comply with licensing directives,” reads Mr Abbas’s statement in part.
Mr Abbas warns that it is a criminal offense for anyone to publish newspapers, journals or any other publication without specifically possessing a government license – or a special permission – to do so.
“According to section 50 (2) (a) of the Media Services Act (2016), a person found guilty of the said offense is liable to a pecuniary fine of Sh5 million-to-Sh10 million, a 3-to-5-year jail sentence – or to both,” reads another part of the statement.
After completing the first licensing phase – which targeted extant newspapers that possessed licenses before enforcement of the Media Services law (Parliamentary Act Number 12 of 2016) and respective regulations, the government will continue to register both ‘old’ and ‘brand new’ publications.
On August 23 this year, the government ordered all newspapers to re-register, a process that was set to end on October 15. However, the deadline was extended to October 31 in an effort to enable more publishers to comply with the directives.
