Proclamation 1185/2020, Articles 5 and 7(4), by disseminating disinformation. He had posted on his personal Facebook page that in anticipation of Covid-19 deaths in Ethiopia, the government was actively preparing 200,000 burial spaces. Shimelis was sentenced for deliberately and recklessly disseminating false information without an attempt to verify the authenticity of the information and without taking into consideration the prevailing circumstances. He was also charged with violating Article 74, which applies to disinformation offenses where the individual has a social media account with over 5,000 followers or where the offense is committed through a broadcast service or print media (Ayene 2020). a prohibition against “prohibited content,” similar to Regulation 16 in the 2020 Regulations (Rweyemamu 2020). On April 13, 2020, Mwananchi posted an apology to its Twitter page, saying that the video was old and had been published erroneously, and that the company would take action against those responsible.6 In its notice, the regulatory authority said that it summoned the newspaper on April 15, and that the paper’s representatives admitted that they had contravened the online content regulations. TANZANIA: SEBASTIAN ATILIO Twitter. Initially, he published an exposé on Twitter in which he alleged corruption involving a purchase of personal protective equipment for health workers to the value of 60 million Zimbabwean dollars. He was arrested in July 2020 and charged with “incitement to participate in public violence,” an accusation that was thought to be linked to a forthcoming protest against corruption organized by activists and opposition politicians. After that he was arrested again and released on bail on charges of inciting violence after he voiced support for an anti-government protest in July and also on contempt of court charges for allegedly claiming corruption within the country’s national prosecution agency (Burke and Chingono 2020). Finally, in January 2021 he was arrested once again after tweeting that police had beaten an infant to death while enforcing Covid-19 lockdown rules. Police later said the information was false. Chin’ono posted on his Twitter account that police had taken him from his house and said they were charging him with “communicating falsehoods.” This was later dismissed, as the High Court found that the law under which he was charged had been struck down by the Supreme Court in 2014 (Al Jazeera 2021). Amnesty International said the arrests were “designed to intimidate and send a chilling message to journalists, whistleblowers and activists who draw attention to matters of public interest in Zimbabwe.”7 In 2019, Sebastian Atilio was arrested for his posts in a WhatsApp group meant for commentary on politics and social issues. In his post, Atilio claimed that villagers in an area known as Iringa may be forced to relocate to accommodate land claims made by Unilever Tea Tanzania, a private company. Atilio was arrested and In 2019, Sebastian Atilio was charged with publishing false inforarrested for his posts in a mation, as per Section 16 of the Cyber Crimes Act, 2015, and for performing WhatsApp group meant for journalistic activities without a permit commentary on politics and from the Tanzania Journalists Board, social issues. as per Section 50(2)(b) of the Media Services Act, 2016. Prosecutors argued that Atilio disturbed the peace and should not be granted bail. Unilever’s East Africa corporate affairs director, Joseph Sunday, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in an email that “Unilever Tea Tanzania is neither a complainant nor an interested party in the case against [Atilio]” (Said 2019). The journalist was held for nearly three weeks before he was released on bail. The charges were later withdrawn, in March 2020. TANZANIA: THE MWANANCHI NEWSPAPER The Mwananchi newspaper was banned from publishing online content for six months and fined five million Tanzanian shillings over the alleged publication of false news in April 2020. It was alleged that the newspaper had circulated an online video in which Tanzanian President John Magufuli was shown buying fish in an open market, which was considered irresponsible given the Covid-19 pandemic. The legal action was based on the alleged violation of Regulation 12(l) of the Electronic and Postal Communications (Online Content) Regulations, 2018. Regulation 12 contained I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH ZIMBABWE: HOPEWELL CHIN’ONO Well-known award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested three times in a space of six months for charges relating to a series of posts on NIGERIA: ROTIMI JOLAYEMI The poet Rotimi Jolayemi was arrested and charged in May 2020 for sharing a poem that was critical of Lai Mohammad, Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture. An audio recording of this poem was shared on WhatsApp and subsequently went viral. It referenced corruption by the government and was Sub -Saharan Africa – 1 63