MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th October, 2021) The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) non-profit organization condemned the detainment of Tanzanian cartoonist Optatus Fwema over a caricature of the country's President Samia Suluhu Hassan and called for his immediate release.
Fwema, who shared a drawing on Instagram showing the Tanzanian president as a little girl playing games, alluding to her role in the country's politics, has been held in the city of Dar es Salaam since September 24. On Tuesday, the police raided the cartoonist's house without notifying his lawyer in search of incriminating evidence, according to the NGO.
"Only the worst authoritarian regimes jail cartoonists over an ordinary satirical cartoon of the country's leader. This arbitrary detention is the latest disastrous signal for press freedom, which has worsened steadily in recent years. We call for this cartoonist's immediate and unconditional release and we urge the president not to take the same predatory road as her predecessor," Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF Africa, said in a statement.
The cartoonist has not been formally charged, and thus should not be in custody for more than 48 hours, the NGO noted.
Fwema's detainment is the latest in a series of incidents that point to the government's intent to clamp down on freedom of the press. In early September, Tanzanian Interior Minister George Simbachawene instructed the police to launch a campaign against citizens allegedly committing crimes on social platforms, including insults targeting the president, who has been at the country's helm since March following the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
Another case, the RSF noted, involved a thirty-day suspension of the Tanzanian newspaper Raia Mwema for releasing information that the killer of four security guards, gunned down in late August near the French embassy in Tanzania, was a member of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party.
The African nation ranks 124 among out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index, after falling 53 spots compared to 2016.
