Tanzania Bans Popular Newspaper Over Currency Exchange Rate Data

The government of Tanzania has banned for a week a popular local newspaper called The Citizen for allegedly publishing fake news about exchange rate of the country's currency, the shilling, against the US dollar. That was reported by some East African media on February 28, 2019.

Earlier on February 23, 2019, the Citizen newspaper published findings of its survey that suggested the US dollar then was selling at up to 2415 shillings. That was, according to the embattled newspaper, the lowest exchange rate of the local currency against the US dollar in 3 years and 7 months. In banning the newspaper, the government said the findings were fake. As such the publication of the survey findings was deliberately flawed hence violated media ethics and incites citizens against the government.

Banning of local newspapers by the government, over trivial allegations is not unusual in Tanzania these days!

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