On 8 and 9 July 2014, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa (the Special Rapporteur), Commissioner Pansy Tlakula, in collaboration with the Centre for Human Rights, Media Institute of South Africa Tanzania (MISA-Tanzania), and members of the Decriminalisation of Expression (DOX) Campaign, organised a stakeholders meeting on the decriminalisation of laws limiting Freedom of Expression, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The DOX campaign is a campaign for the repeal of laws on criminal defamation, sedition, insult and false news in Africa, led by the Special Rapporteur. The Centre for Human Rights acts as the secretariat of the campaign with members from several local, regional and international organisations working on freedom of expression.

 The meeting brought together organisations that had worked on the decriminalisation of laws limiting freedom of expression in Tanzania in the past, those that are well positioned to do so in the future, as well as representatives of media groupings whose activities are most jeopardised by the existence of these laws.

At the meeting, participants discussed some of the various criminal laws restricting freedom of expression and how they had been applied by courts in Tanzania, the impact of these laws on media freedom and as well as past efforts at their decriminalisation in Tanzania. The meeting concluded with the adoption of anAction Plan to guide further action towards the repeal of laws criminalising expression in Tanzania.