Maxence Melo Mubyazi

Maxence Melo Mubyazi (born May 1976) is a Tanzanian journalist known for co-founding the online news outlet and forum JamiiForums. In 2019, he won the CPJ International Press Freedom Award for his activism calling for accountability and transparency in Tanzania.

Biography Melo was born in Kantare, a village in Kagera Region. He went on to obtain a technician certificate and a bachelor's degree from the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology. He is known for his advocacy for freedom of expression and internet governance.

In 2006, Melo co-founded alongside Mike Mushi the social media website JamiiForums, which emphasised user-generated content to avoid penalties faced by traditional media for reporting on social, political and economic issues in Tanzania.

Melo was also the founder of the news portal Fikra Pevu. On 16 December, he was charged with "obstruction of a police investigation", "not complying with an order of disclosure of data" and "managing a domain not registered in Tanzania", under the 2015 Cybercrimes Act and the 2010 Electronic and Postal Communications Act. Tanzanian authorities had demanded the identities of JamiiForum users, specifically on forum posts commenting on alleged "corruption deals" between May 2015 and December 2016. As a result, Melo had to shut down Fikra Pevu, though JamiiForums eventually reopened. During Melo's acceptance speech, he criticised the trend of sub-Saharan African countries using overly broad cybercrime laws to attack freedom of speech.