Maxence Melo Mubyazi
Maxence Melo Mubyazi (Born in 1977)[1] is investigative journalist and the owner and co-founder of a popular East and Central African platform and discussion forum, especially for whistleblowers in Tanzania. He was awarded 2019 with the CPJ International Press Freedom Award[2] and the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award being awarded by the Committee to Protect Journalists.[3] His website hosts frank debates, mostly in Kiswahili, about topics that include graft in the public sector and government incompetence.
He and his website became famous in 2007 with a story about corruption in the Central Bank of Tanzania. Millions of dollars were missing from the bank. His website office was raided 2016 by Tanzanian security forces, he was detained 8 days for interrogation. Afterwards, he was charged with managing a domain not registered in Tanzania. 2017 Mubyazi had to appear in court 81 times.[2][1] The cases restrict him from traveling beyond the city of Dar es Salaam.
After being awarded with the CPJ International Press Freedom Award the US Embassy in Tanzania explicitly congratulated him.[4]
On April 8, 2020, Resident Magistrates Court of Dar es Salaam at Kisutu convicted him on charge of “obstruction of a police investigation” (under Section 22(1) of the Cyber Crimes Act, 2015) in case No. 456 of 2016.[5] The Court convicted him to one year in prison or a fine of 3,000,000 Tshs (approximately 1,200 Euros). The judgement in this case had been postponed five times since 2019. He paid the fine and is intending to appeal the court’s decision before the High Court of Tanzania.
References
- "Tanzanian court starts trial of co-founders of whistleblower website". Reuters. 2017-08-25. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- "Maxence Melo Mubyazi, Tanzania - Awards". cpj.org. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- Grynbaum, Michael M. (2019-11-21). "Shepard Smith, Former Fox News Anchor, Puts $500,000 Behind Free Press". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
The other honorees were Patrícia Campos Mello, a journalist at a Brazilian publication, Folha de S. Paulo; Neha Dixit, a freelance investigative journalist in India; two Nicaraguan broadcast journalists, Lucía Pineda Ubau and Miguel Mora, who were imprisoned for 172 days on false charges; and Maxence Melo Mubyazi, a journalist in Tanzania.
- "U.S. Embassy Congratulates Maxence Melo on International Press Freedom Award". U.S. Embassy in Tanzania. 2019-07-18. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- "Tanzania: Conviction of Mr. Maxence Melo from JamiiForums". International Federation for Human Rights. Retrieved 2020-05-22.