Why is the WHO so worried about Tanzania?

The World Health Organisation has drawn up a shortlist of countries it’s most concerned about during the pandemic. Tanzania is at the top. The government’s lack of transparency during the crisis is a big part of the problem. In recent years the country has imposed increasingly repressive laws to muffle the media — newspapers fined and journalists arrested. Or worse. For the purposes of this piece I am ‘Tom James’; I’m either more circumspect or less courageous than my fellow journos here. When the international media — fed by stringers whose identities are disguised — try to report on the pandemic, they are accused of scaremongering, their attempts described by the government as a ‘form of warfare’. Brave journalists keep popping their heads above parapets to tell the world what’s really happening. Amnesty International recently stated the obvious: nailing journalists who criticise their governments’ approach to Covid-19 is hampering efforts to tackle it.