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Misanet.com / AIM, 1 April - Marcelo Mosse, editor of the independent Mozambican newsheet "Metical", who has been threatened with a libel suit by Nyimpine Chissano, son of President Joaquim Chissano, has come under scurrilous attack from the Sunday paper "Domingo". In an article in "Bula-Bula", its back page gossip column, "Domingo" claims that Mosse is the sole journalist writing about Nyimpine Chissano. It alleges that Mosse is the source for all the articles on Nyimpine that have recently appeared: "Domingo" says he writes an article for a paper in one country so that he can quote it in another. Mosse dismisses the "Domingo" story as "all lies and disinformation". He told AIM that "Domingo" had not made the slightest attempt to contact him before slandering him across its back page. "Domingo" claims that the first story concerning an alleged detention of Nyimpine for a few hours in South Africa, where the police supposedly found him in possession of cocaine, appeared in the South African weekly, the "Mail and Guardian", citing the opinion of Mosse. "The same Marcelo Mosse writes the story in 'Expresso' in Lisbon, and cites the 'Mail and Guardian'. He publishes it in 'Metical' and cites 'Expresso'. 'Mediafax' (another Maputo newsheet) publishes the story in full from 'Expresso', but omits the name of its author, who is precisely Marcelo Mosse". - The same author goes around citing the texts that he writes, and when he cites other papers, hides the fact that he wrote the stories, sneers "Domingo". Mosse, it claims, is trying to make it seem as if there are "many and varied sources", when "as far as we know, it is only Marcelo Mosse who has given prominence to the story". The chain of events described by "Domingo" is false from start to finish. The first story on Nyimpine Chissano's alleged detention appeared, not in the "Mail and Guardian", but in "Metical", and it said absolutely nothing about cocaine. The story, on 21 February, said that Nyimpine had been held for "arrogant" behaviour towards the police. The main burden of the story was the claim that President Chissano's office had paid bail for Nyimpine's release - which the President's press attache, Bento Baloi, denied. In March, the "Mail and Guardian" published a very different story, citing South African sources, and claiming, for the first time, that Nyimpine had been in possession of cocaine. The South African paper rang up Mosse, and he is cited towards the end of this article, merely stating that the President's office would neither confirm nor deny that Nyimpine had indeed been briefly detained. "Expresso", a Portuguese weekly, picked up the "Mail and Guardian" story and ran it. But since Mosse is the "Expresso" correspondent in Maputo, the Lisbon paper rang him and asked for a more detailed article on Nyimpine Chissano's activities. Mosse obliged, and the article appeared in "Expresso" in late March, concentrating on Nyimpine's business activities. But, as stringers have often found, editors change stories: "Expresso" could not resist tagging on the claim from the "Mail and Guardian" about cocaine. Mosse insists that this was not part of the text that he sent to "Expresso". A few days later "Mediafax" did indeed reprint the "Expresso" story in full. Contrary to the "Domingo" claim, it cited Mosse as the author. But "Mediafax" does have one thing in common with "Domingo" - it did not bother to speak to Mosse. The claim that the story was run in "Metical" citing "Expresso" is entirely false. The only time "Metical" has mentioned cocaine in connection with Nyimpine Chissano was on Friday, when it published a threatening letter from Nyimpine's lawyer, denying the charge. It is strange that it is Nyimpine's supporters, first his lawyer, and now "Domingo", who seem determined to spread the cocaine story in the Mozambican press, thus giving it a much wider audience. The latest issue of "Domingo" also runs the story, first carried in "Metical" six days ago, concerning the arrest of Carlitos Rashid Cassamo, the ninth person to be detained in connection with the murder on 22 November of "Metical"'s founder and first editor, Carlos Cardoso. But it fails to mention the most newsworthy point about the detention - which is that Cassamo was apprehended on a bus, in a citizens' arrest carried out by two of the "Metical" staff, who then handed him over to the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC). Thus not content with libelling the paper's current editor, "Domingo" deliberately downplays the role of the "Metical" staff in the hunt for Cardoso's killers. Source: Open University
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