
Tanzania bans newspaper for 2 years - tefo-mohapi
https://www.iafrikan.com/2017/06/17/tanzanias-government-has-imposed-a-two-year-ban-on-a-newspaper-including-any-online-articles-it-publishes/
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mhogomchungu
Tanzanian here and i am surprised find my country in the front page of hacker
news.

Summary of what is going on.

17 years ago, Tanzania signed a "bad" contract with acacia mining company[1].

The person who signed the contract on Tanzania side is Jakawa Mrisho Kikwete
when he was a minister for energy, water and minerals and Benjamin William
Mkapa was Tanzania's president at that time. Mr. Kikwete became Tanzania's
president after Mkapa finished his second term.

The currently president is running an investigation and is completely side
stepping these two individuals who are at the center of it and does not want
them to even be mentioned and thats what is going on.

If he chooses not to talk about them then thats his prerogative but, the
citizens of Tanzania should be allowed to and there is plenty of stuff to talk
about.

[1] [http://www.acaciamining.com/](http://www.acaciamining.com/)

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max_
lol, as a Ugandan. I know exactly how u feell

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bluesign
Tanzania bans ‘a’ newspaper for 2 years

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gumby
I think the singular use of "newspaper" here follows convention in not needing
a leading article ("a").

(Had it been plural the article would have also not been needed _on a
grammatical basis_ , although I think it would in that case have been fair to
specify "some" or "all").

~~~
paulddraper
Lacking a definite article is incorrect and worse, confusing.

"Tanzania bans fruit for two years"

"Tanzania bans song for two years"

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jlg23
No confusion

The first can mean all fruit is banned, because "fruit" is a mass noun and as
such does not have a plural form.

The second clearly refers to _one_ song, just like the headline refers to
_one_ newspaper.

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idle_processor
"Song" can also refer to the act of singing, so the second one still read
ambiguously to me.

