Tanzania's High Court lifts injunction against use of online content regulations

What you need to know:

The case was filed against the Minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe and Attorney General (AG), Dr Adelardus Kilangi.


Mtwara. The High Court of Tanzania in Mtwara Zone has removed from the court a case on the online content regulation filed by the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs).

The case was filed against the Minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe and Attorney General (AG), Dr Adelardus Kilangi.

Other CSOs are the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders (THRD); the Media Council of Tanzania (MCT), Jamii Media; the Tanzania Media Women Association (Tamwa) and the Tanzania Editors Forum (TEF).

The regulations were supposed to take their effect on May 5. However, a temporary injunction was issued on May 4, after the CSOs had filed the case. That means, if you are a blogger, make sure that you are registered.

The case number 12/2018 was brought before Principal Judge Dr Fauz Twaib on Monday, May 28 for judgement over three petitions submitted against the government.

Reading the judgement, Dr Twaib said the court accepted one petition out of the three petitions, noting that the CSOs lacked enough benefits to file the case.

Judge Twaib said in their submissions, the applicants have failed to show how they were directly affected by the regulations.

Therefore, the case was removed from the court, but the CSOs were given an opportunity to file another case upon their satisfaction that they have a mandate of doing so.