When the Tanzanian newspaper, Mseto, was controversially banned for three years in 2016, the move sparked years of litigation at the East African Court of Justice, litigation that now seems to have been brought to an end by an appeal decision from that court delivered last week.
This particular court is not very well known outside the region, but its findings in the two Mseto cases, not to mention other judgments delivered by the EACJ, indicate that its decisions are worth reading – and, if you are a judge or counsel, worth citing.
However, a year went by without anything further being done to file the appeal, and Mseto eventually applied to the court's appellate division to strike out the appeal notice.
Counsel explained that, despite the ban lapsing, Mseto was unable to resume publication because Tanzania's Registrar of Newspapers had refused to issue a new licence on the basis that an appeal was pending.
Closely examining the relevant timelines, however, the appeal judges said the restructuring of the AG's office began in February 2018, while the trial court's Mseto decision was delivered more than four months after this.
