Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of media freedom in Tanzania since the arrest of investigative journalist Erick Kabendera.

On 5 August, I said publically that we were concerned at Mr Kabendera's continued detention and that the charges kept changing – a tactic commonly used to stop journalists from doing their job. On 9 August, our High Commission and the Embassy of the United States in Dar Es Salaam issued a joint statement expressing concern about Mr Kabendera's detention and the steady erosion of due process in Tanzania. The British Government believes that media freedom is vital to functioning societies and that journalists must be able to investigate and report as they see fit. The Government of Tanzania is well aware of our stance given that the Foreign Minister Kabudi attended the Media Freedom Conference in London last month.