‘Probe journo assault claim’

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Tanzanian police to drop charges of illegal assembly against a journalist and to investigate allegations he was assaulted.

Sitta Tumma, a print reporter and regional bureau chief for the privately owned Tanzania Daima newspaper, was arrested on August 8 while covering an opposition campaign rally in Tarime District in the north ahead of a by-election, CPJ said on Monday.

During his arrest, Tumma was assaulted and his assertions that he was a journalist were ignored by security forces. He was subsequently detained overnight before being released the following day on bail.

Police accuse him of unlawful assembly and have told him he may be required to appear at any time to assist in their investigations, according to Tumma and his lawyer Ernest Mhagama.

Mhagama told CPJ that police claimed they could not identify Tumma as a journalist because he was not dressed as one.

“Tanzanian authorities should investigate those who arrested and assaulted journalist Tumma, instead of intimidating him with a bogus investigation into his reporting at a political event,” said CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. “The idea that journalists should dress a certain way is a joke.”