(MISA/IFEX) – On 1 November 2000, the British Broadcasting Corporation correspondent in Zanzibar, Ally Saleh, was arrested and detained by police. Saleh was taken to Malindi police station and later transferred to Mwembemadema Central Police station. Saleh was released on bail on 2 November. He is expected to appear in court later in November, but […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 1 November 2000, the British Broadcasting Corporation correspondent in Zanzibar, Ally Saleh, was arrested and detained by police. Saleh was taken to Malindi police station and later transferred to Mwembemadema Central Police station. Saleh was released on bail on 2 November. He is expected to appear in court later in November, but at this stage it is not clear what he has been charged with.
Meanwhile, reports reaching MISA-Tanzania say that the Zanzibari police are also seeking to arrest three more journalists for unknown reasons. The three – Issa Yusuf of “Mtanzania” newspaper, Jabir Idrisa of “Majira” and the Zanzibari correspondent for Radio-TV Deutsche Welle, Salim Said Salim – have reportedly gone into hiding.
On Saturday 28 October, Khalfan Said, a photojournalist with “The Guardian”, was arrested and detained for eight hours before being released. Police confiscated two of his rolls of film. They claimed that Said had photographed military personnel from the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force (TPDF) at the Zanzibar port. Said was on the Islands of Zanzibar to cover the elections.
On 31 October, another photojournalist, Robert Okanda from the Swahili daily paper “Tanzania Leo”, was reportedly roughed up by members of the TPDF on the grounds that he had photographed them. He was not arrested, but his film was destroyed.
