Suspension of Zanzibari newspaper denounced

Lawyers and a media analyst have criticised the government's suspension on Monday of a Zanzibari weekly newspaper, Dira, terming the move a violation of press freedom. The government of Zanzibar suspended the privately owned newspaper for "a lack of professional ethics", Salum Juma Othman, minister of state in the chief minister's office, said on Tuesday. He declined to give further details, saying only that the government had the power to suspend a newspaper if it was in the national interest, and that the newspaper was free to take the government to court. However, the observers warned that long-running political rivalries were also at play on the semiautonomous island, which was troubled by election related violence in 2001. "There are some genuine complaints from the government that a responsible editor could have addressed, but none the less, this does not justify closing the newspaper down," Kajubi Mukajanga, editor of Media Watch, the newsletter of the Media Council of Tanzania, told IRIN on Tuesday. Dira's suspension follows several disagreements between the government and the critical weekly newspaper, which claims to have a circulation of 8,000 - eight times that of its nearest rival. "After the Media Council attempted to reconcile them, the situation got out of hand due to the confrontational relationship. There is still intolerance on Zanzibar," Mukajanga said. Two Dar es Salaam lawyers said the suspension was an infringement on the freedom of press that was probably brought about by the newspaper writing on sensitive issues about the government. "They [the paper] should go to court because they have a good case," one lawyer, who requested anonymity, said. "If it had just been about professional ethics, there are avenues for that. They are clearly touching some of the things that make the government feel uncomfortable," the lawyer said. Another lawyer said that the fact that Dira's editor, Ali Nabwa, was a former assistant to the late Vice-President Omar Ali Juma, and having been "part of the system, knows a lot". But he also warned that some people on Zanzibar felt that the newspaper was being used as a mouthpiece for an opposition party, the Civic United Front. Nabwa told IRIN that the newspaper would apply for a court injunction so that it could continue publishing while the case was in court. He said the government had suspended the newspaper because it had begun to publish revelations about past human rights violations and potential vote rigging in future elections. However, Othman denied Nabwa's claim, saying the suspension was over the issue of professional ethics.