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other things, can censor the flow of public information; the Ethics Commission Act for politicalleaders; and the Zanzibar media laws.Due to the repressive nature of these laws journalists have been mistreated, humiliated, beatenand jailed without the proper dispensation of justice. The cases in point are the beating of twojournalists by prison warders on September 10 2005 and the banning of Zanzibari journalistJabir Idrisa on June 9 2005.The Newspapers Act, which stipulates on defamation and libel without setting clear parametersto the court to institute fines and amounts of compensation, is also affecting media freedombecause the highest level of compensation has now jumped up to 10 billion Shillings(about US$10 million).State of the media in ZanzibarWhile the Tanzanian media in general operates within a repressive legal regime, Zanzibar,which is part of the United Republic of Tanzania, is the worst affected. The Zanzibari government,which has the power to legislate laws independent of the union, has yet to respond tocalls by media stakeholders to institute new legal and regulatory frameworks for the media. InZanzibar, all media laws, including the law on the powers of presidential decrees, are yet to berepealed or amended. Unlike on the mainland, the arbitrary arrest of journalists in Zanzibar isa common occurrence.The government media in Zanzibar is tightly controlled by the state through presidential decreesand draconian laws, which give the minister responsible for information the power toderegister a newspaper without question.Unlike on the mainland, where there is a very competitive media market, state media dominatesin Zanzibar. On the archipelago, there is just one private FM radio station, Zenj FM,which is owned by the Minister for Information, Sports and Culture of the union government,Mohamed Seif Khatibu.The state-owned media include Television Zanzibar, Sauti ya Tanzania Zanzibar and the ZanzibarLeo newspaper. Since Dira was banned in 2004, the private print media has been nonexistent.ConclusionDespite the boom in media outlets, press freedom is still in danger because of the failure totranslate the information and broadcasting policy into a single media law. Action is needed toput in place the necessary regulatory mechanisms for the Tanzanian media. The incompleteprocess of media law reform must be concluded within a specific timeframe. In Zanzibar, themedia law reform process must begin with stakeholders discussing the framework for a newmedia policySo This Is Democracy? 2005-120-Media Institute of Southern Africa