JamiiForums boss troubles linger

Dar es Salaam. The co-founder of the country’s popular social media platform, JamiiForums, Mr Maxence Melo, was yesterday charged with three counts including managing a domain that is not registered in Tanzania.

Mr Melo, who is defended by advocates Jebra Kambore and Jeremia Mtobesya, was arraigned before three different Kisutu resident magistrates where he denied the charges and remanded after he failed to meet bail terms. He was required to secure two sureties for each case who would sign a total bond of Sh16 million.

The accused failed to produce one surety in one of the three different cases, a situation that made the court to order him remanded.

In the first case that is before Resident Magistrate Victoria Nongwa, state attorney Mohamed Salum alleged that on diverse dates between December 9, 2011 and December 13, 2016 at Mikocheni within Kinondoni District in Dar es Salaam Region, the accused being the director of Jamii Media Company Limited incorporated under the Company Act Cap 212 RE 2002, did operate and use a website known as jamiiforums.com which is not registered in Tanzania Country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD), namely dot-tz.

The accused allegedly committed the offence contrary to Section 79(c) of the Electronic and Postal Communications Act (Epoca) number 3 of 2010 read together with Regulations 10 and 17 (4) of the Electronic and Postal Communication Regulationof 2011.

In the other two cases, Mr Melo appeared before magistrates Thomas Simba and Godfrey Mwambapa facing charges of obstructing investigations contrary to Section 22(20) of the Cyber Crimes Act number 14 of 2015.

Prosecution alleged in the charges that between January and December, 2016 at Mikocheni, the accused being director of Jamii Media Co, while knowing that the Tanzania Police Force was conducting a criminal investigation on electronic communication, published on his website, with intent to obstruct investigation, unlawfully failed to comply with an order to disclose information which the investigators wanted from him.

After reading the charges, prosecution informed the court investigation of the cases was still in progress. The cases were adjourned to December 29 and January 26, where they will come for mention.

Mr Melo was produced at the court yesterday amid growing concerns locally and internationally over the police move to hold him without charges for over 36 hours.

A number of local and international organisations pressured the government to either release Mr Melo or charge him as the law requires.

The calls came after Mr Mello spent three nights in custody without being taken to court after police denied him bail on the grounds that he would not cooperate with the investigators once he is released, according to Mr Melo’s lawyer Benedict Ishabakaki.

Until yesterday, police were tight-lipped over why they were detaining him but his lawyers suspected it was due to his refusal to disclose the identities of contributors in the blog he is co-managing.

Not only did the #FreeMaxenceMelo# hashtag trend on Twitter for the whole of Thursday, local and international media and human rights organisations on separate occasions and statements also called upon the government to set free Mr Melo.

The organisations include the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (Cipesa), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC), Tanzania Editors Forum and Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition (THRDC).

In its statement, a Uganda-based Cipesa said it strongly condemned the unjustifiable arrest and urged the Tanzanian authorities to immediately release Mr Melo and henceforth cease any intimidation of Jamii Media (the company under which JamiiForums is run), its staff, and other social media users.

The statement further said that the arrest extends the “steady and worrying deterioration in media freedom and Internet freedom” since President John Magufuli took office over a year ago.