ARTICLE 19 warns that elections due in October 2000 promise to be a "farce" unless some key issues are urgently addressed, including a lack of media freedom. On 6 July, the organisation called on the Commonwealth Secretary-General to lead a high-level tripartite mission to Tanzania within the next two weeks to revive foundering international efforts to resolve Zanzibar's political crisis. ARTICLE 19 urges formation of a delegation of representatives from the Commonwealth, the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity to address three urgent issues: (1) "reform of the Zanzibar Electoral Commission, which remains an instrument of government"; (2) "the continuing harassment of opposition leaders, including ongoing trials on trumped-up treason charges"; and (3) "the abuse by government of the publicly-funded media, which continues to pump out pro-government propaganda." ARTICLE 19 says the media "should be completely overhauled to ensure balanced and impartial reporting."

In an April 2000 report entitled "Zanzibar: Democracy on Shaky Foundations", ARTICLE 19 noted that the main Zanzibar law with regard to the print media is "far more sweeping and repressive" than the equivalent law in mainland Tanzania. "A measure of its heavy-handedness is the fact that, in dramatic contrast to the mainland, not a single privately-owned newspaper or news magazine is based in Zanzibar," according to the report. It adds that Zanzibar's print media act "lays down difficult and arbitrary conditions for the practice of print journalism, including government licensing of individual journalists and steep conditions on ownership and publication of newspapers. In addition, it gives government officials and the police almost limitless powers to seize publications, search premises, effect arrests and suspend or ban publications or individual journalists. These provisions are reinforced by archaic provisions on sedition and defamation." For more information, including the full April 2000 report, see the ARTICLE 19 website: http://www.article19.org.">http://www.article19.org">http://www.article19.org.