THE Tanzania government has banned eight magazines and suspended three tabloid newspapers for publishing pornographic material, Information and Political Affairs Minister Omari Mapuri announced on Friday. Mapuri said that the literature and photographs of naked or half naked women aimed to corrupt people’s morals, and also negated a drive to contain the spread of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (Aids). All the banned magazines, published in the local Kiswahili language, have a wide readership among young people. But media organisations — the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-TAN), the Association of Journalists and Media Workers (AJM) and the Tanzania Union of Journalists (TUJ) — criticised the government’s ban, saying it was arbitrary and uncalled for. – AFP