- As Angola began voter registration this week, ahead of its first elections in over a decade, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the government to do more to ensure that the press, essential to the validity of the poll, is able to operate more freely.
A new media law passed in May promised much-needed reforms but failed to protect press freedoms adequately, the watchdog's report, 'Still Not Fully Protected: Rights to Freedom of Expression and Information under Angola's New Press Law', said on Thursday.
"Unless the Angolan government brings its press law up to international standards, freedom of the press in the election period will be compromised," Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at HRW, said in a press release. "The government urgently needs to approve further legislation to fully implement reforms already set out in its new Press Law."
Voter registration started on Wednesday and is set to run until June next year, meaning that Angola's first ballot since 1992 - which has already been delayed repeatedly - could theoretically take place in 2007.
Improvements to the press law included the elimination of the state monopoly over television, paving the way for the emergence of private broadcasters, but the licensing procedures were too bureaucratic and largely subject to the discretion of government, HRW said. The law also defined criminal conduct by journalists in unclear and sweeping terms, established "excessive" penalties for transgressions and still criminalised defamation.
Regulations explaining how the law would work in practice would help. "It's not just the law that's important, it is also the implementation of the law. Until there is a complete picture the press doesn't know how to act," one political analyst, who asked not to be named, told IRIN.
"The law guarantees certain freedoms but in the provinces newspapers are seized if the local administration doesn't like what they say and journalists get called in to see the governor if they don't like what they read or hear. These kinds of restrictions are outside the law but routinely happen," the source added.
State-owned media currently dominates the flow of information in Angola, especially in the provinces outside Luanda.
Radio is a powerful medium in a country where nearly 40 percent of the population is illiterate, but only the state's Radio Nacional de Angola broadcasts nationally. Despite assurances from the government that the Catholic Church's Radio Ecclesia could also transmit across Angola, it has not yet been allowed to set up transmitters enabling it to do so.
Media watchers say a lack of press freedom is likely to be a problem in ensuring a plurality of information reaches all voters. "The whole population needs to know what is going on with elections, but what is happening is that only the official message will reach much of the country," Pedro Neto, president of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) in Angola, told IRIN.
"This means no other opinions and information will reach most parts of the country. But we are trying, through the regulations of the new law, to see if we are able to improve the situation," he added.
Since Angola's 27-year civil war ended in 2002, the oil-rich country has enjoyed an investment boom, and the government has rolled out an ambitious reconstruction plan. When elections are finally held, the main political rival to the ruling MPLA party, led by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, will be the former rebel movement, UNITA.
However, many questions about the ballot are unanswered, including whether Dos Santos will run as the MPLA candidate, whether presidential and legislative ballots will be held simultaneously, and when the vote will actually take place.
Observers fear that if the media is not given proper license to operate in the period running up to the poll, its legitimacy could be affected. "Without real freedom of the press, it would be hard to consider an election free, fair and transparent," said the political analyst.
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