Press Release
Freedom Of Press Is An Empty Slogan In Democracy

Following the indefinite ban of weekly tabloid paper (Mwanahalisi) from 30 July 2012, for what the government of Tanzania termed as prolonged disobedience by its managing editor and publisher and the possibility of that particular paper causing worries among citizens, Hizb-ut Tahrir / East Africa would like to expose this issue in two aspects;

Firstly: The hypocrisy and lies of the democratic system on the context of freedom of press. While in reality this freedom as any other freedoms in democracy are only empty slogans. Freedom that only means to say and write what the government likes.

Secondly: Weakness in the manmade law which deliberately provides a self interest loophole that on one hand provides the so called freedom and on the other hand that particular freedom is controlled and restricted.

The solution for these failures does not lie on making more and more manmade laws which media houses think would safeguard the industry, but the real solution is to uproot the whole ideology and replace it with an alternative ideology which is Islam.

Masoud Msellem
Deputy Media Representative
Hizb-ut Tahrir / East Africa