Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan is opening up the country’s political and media environment in a bid to improve her country’s international image, as well as its relations with foreign investors and governments. On March 4, Tanzanian prosecutors dropped terrorism charges against Freeman Mbowe, the chairman of the opposition Party for Democracy and Progress (commonly known as Chadema for its Swahili portmanteau), and ordered his release from prison along with three other defendants. The move is the latest in a series of actions that Tanzania’s first female president has taken to restore political freedoms in the country and reverse the iron-fisted policies of her late predecessor, John Magufuli. In a highly publicized event on Feb. 16, Hassan also met with Tundu Lissu — Tanzania’s most prominent opposition leader and Chadema’s presidential candidate in 2020 elections — in Brussels, where Lissu has been in exile since a 2017 assassination attempt.