Tanzania: 2 journalists freed from detention

Two scribes from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an American-based independent non-profit organisation, were released from detention in Tanzania and have departed from the country.

Angela Quintal and Muthoki Mumo, the two journalists, were allowed to return to their hotel in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam, after they were taken to an unknown location by officials and interrogated for several hours, CNN reported.

The passports of the two CPJ scribes have also been returned.

CPJ executive director Joel Simon said in a statement, "Angela Quintal and Muthoki Mumo travelled to Tanzania to understand the challenges facing the Tanzanian press and to inform the global public. It is deeply ironic that through their unjustified and abusive detention of our colleagues, Tanzanian authorities have made their work that much easier. It is now abundantly clear to anyone who followed the latest developments that Tanzanian journalists work in a climate of fear of intimidation. We call on the government of Tanzania to allow journalists to work freely and to allow those who defend their rights to access the country without interference."

Quintal, the Africa program coordinator at the CPJ, and Mumo, the firm's sub-Saharan Africa representative, were in Tanzania for a reporting assignment. They were detained on Wednesday by officials, "who identified themselves as working with the Tanzanian immigration authority," according to the CPJ.

The officers had confiscated the scribes' phones, passports and computers.

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