NAIROBI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - A global media watchdog criticised Tanzania's government on Monday, saying it had threatened to deport a local journalist for his role in a documentary linking its fish exports with arms trafficking.
Reporters Without Borders said Richard Mgamba, who works for the independent daily The Citizen, was targeted for helping Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper shoot "Darwin's Nightmare."
The controversial 2005 film said the fish export industry in Tanzania's Lake Victoria town of Mwanza contributes to arms trafficking, poverty, HIV/Aids, prostitution and homelessness.
Mgamba, who translated for Sauper, said Tanzania's government had threatened to deport him to neighbouring Kenya.
"Blackmailing journalists on the basis of their citizenship, which the government is doing, is disgraceful," the Paris-based media watchdog said.
"It is insulting and deplorable arbitrary revenge against a journalist who was simply exercising his constitutional right to free expression."
The press rights group quoted Mgamba saying the government wanted to strip him of his Tanzanian nationality. Government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has accused Sauper of not providing evidence linking fish exports to the arms trade.
"One of the biggest lies in the film is that the planes that are coming to pick up fish from Mwanza bring weapons that are used to destabilise (Africa's) Great Lakes region," a visibly angry Kikwete said during a television address late last month.
"There is nowhere in the film where he (Sauper) substantiates this."
The documentary has also been condemned by Tanzania's parliament and local officials in Mwanza, who organised a rally against Mgamba earlier this month that forced him to flee to the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
