Angola
Media situation in Angola worsening

afrol.com, 11 January  - While censorship is increasing, harassment of independent journalists grows in number and free media are totally gagged in some conflict provinces, there is an ongoing general strike in most parts of Angola. Thus, most independent newspapers are closed due to the strike, and government media simply do not cover the strike.

This week, a large number of the Angolan public sector workers went on general strike in most of the Angolan provinces, in reaction to the government's proposal to set the minimum monthly salary at 600 Kwanzas (the equivalent of 30 American Dollars). To date, some public sector workers still earn the equivalent of two cans of Coca-Cola a month. The state media outlets, the only daily newspaper Jornal de Angola, the only nation-wide radio, National Radio of Angola (RNA), and the only TV station, Public Television of Angola (TPA) have censored the event by simply ignoring it. 

Brazilian propaganda specialists contracted by the ruling MPLA have, since 1999, run the State media outlets. According to a MISA source in Jornal de Angola, "the Brazilian specialists have the task of 'convincing' the public that the state media is moving towards openness and democracy". ... "When they don't censor what they feel is inconvenient for the rulers, we go through self-censorship to save the 100 dollars/month food ration cards the government has distributed among state journalists. They even manipulate our stomachs!" revealed MISA's source.

To date, the general strike is still in place in many public sectors throughout the country. However, there is no coverage in the state media. Only the Catholic-run FM Rádio Ecclésia and the Commercial FM LAC have been following the events. As for the independent newspapers, they are only due to come out next Saturday.

Harassment of journalists
Several cases of grave harassment of journalists by the government have been reported recently, most known being the case of Angolan journalist William Tonet. On November 30, he faced threats from inspector Lisboa Santos of the Ministry of Interior, ordering him to reveal a source of information. For more than an hour, inspector Lisboa Santos pressed up the director of weekly newspaper Folha 8, to reveal a source that disclosed embarrassing information on bitter disputes within the high hierarchies of the Ministry of Interior.

William Tonet said that inspector Lisboa Santos warned him that if he did not cooperate, "Folha 8 would face more serious problems and that he would jeopardise my source's life, in case the police found out who passed me the news." William Tonet added that the inspector also warned him about his own safety in not revealing the source. He did not reveal the source.

Government intimidation of journalists was most clearly demonstrated in the defamation sentence against journalists Rafael Marques, Aguiar Dos Santos and Gustavo Costa, upheld by the Supreme Court on 27 October 2000. Marques and Dos Santos were convicted to six months in prison for defaming the President, while Costa was convicted to eight months in jail and a fine for defaming the chief of the civil office of the President, Jose Leitao. 

The trial and charges against Marques and Dos Santos, the director of the independent weekly Agora, originally stemmed from an article written and published by them in July 1999. In the article, Marques referred to President Dos Santos as a dictator. The trial of the journalists began on 21 March, 2000 but was held largely in secret and was characterised by several judicial irregularities. Costa was charged with libelling Leito following an article he had penned for a Portuguese newspaper about corruption at the presidential palace. He was convicted in December 1999 in a trial that was closed to the public and the media. 

A third known case is the unresolved murder of journalist Simão Roberto on 5 June 1998, shot dead while driving back to his newspaper after covering a meeting at the presidential palace. Two weeks later, three young men, arrested for a traffic accident, were accused for his murder. The three "suspects" were transferred in the same day of their arrest to four different police stations, where they were being questioned, while being tortured with a bottle of gas, pangas, and a gun. As they refused to confess, one of them, José Branco, 28 years old, was called out of the cell, tortured and shot dead. "The police said he was trying to escape." Then, the others "confessed".

The two other were transferred to Viana prison, where the second died sometime after, ceding to the wounds of the tortures. On November 20 1999, the Angolan independent weekly newspaper "Folha 8", published survivor Raúl P. Agostinho's plight and questioned the government authorities to respond to the accusations made by the prisoner. The authorities replied with silence. On 9 May 2000, however, Raúl P. Agostinho was released on bail, upon promising that he would not speak out. The murder of Simão Roberto and motives behind it remain unresolved.

Silenced provinces
While press freedom is being limited in central areas, several Angolan provinces note even tougher restrictions. The rich diamond basin of Kuango recently expelled Angolan journalist António Mussumary, director of the local monthly newsletter Notícias. Mussumary received a 24-hour deadline to immediately abandon the village of Cafunfo, his hometown, directly from Kuango Administrator Clemente Kissongo. Although an extradition or expulsion of Angolan citizens from national territory is prohibited by the Angolan Constitution, Article 27, Administrator Kissongo claimed he he was following "superior orders".

The main reason for Mussumary's expulsion is believed to be that he was a stringer for the private Luanda Commercial Radio. The journalist went to cover the frenzy rush for diamonds in the basin of Kuango. It is reported that most of the illegal diamond digging in the area has the blessing and the protection of high rank officials of the army and police commanders.

Also the oil rich Cabinda province, struggling against separatism, is waving against journalists, which organised a religious ceremony on 31 October 2000 to pay homage to deceased journalist António Casimiro, murdered on the same date of 1996.

An outspoken priest, Jorge Casimiro Congo, celebrated a mass in memory of António Casimiro. Francisco Fino, at the time chief-editor-in-charge of the Public Television of Angola (TPA) in Cabinda, edited the television coverage of the event and decided to air it. However, TPA - Cabinda director, Francisco José, confiscated the cassette. He alleged that the material could not be aired by Francisco Fino, as he is a member of a small opposition party Front for Democracy (FpD) and that priest Jorge Casimiro Congo was banned from speaking in state media. The director went further by threatening to expel the journalist from TPA.

Deceased António Casimiro had denounced a case of plundering of public funds in Cabinda, in which he implicated local government official Francisco Raúl Rocha. Days before António Casimiro was murdered, the same Francisco Raúl da Rocha threatened the journalist to death by pointing a handgun at him in an official public ceremony. To date, the case remains in silence, despite the promises made by the minister of Social Communication that the assassins would be brought to justice. 

Also in Cabinda, the Voice of America stringer, Manuel da Costa, has been under constant harassment by the local authorities since he reported on a women's march in protest against the military drafting of their children. da Costa has been beaten up by identified police officers two times and received threats from officials several times. As he has filed charges against these officials, his cases quickly died out. Even at the police station he was told that "if I pursued the case any further then I would have to pay the consequences." da Costa is also prevented from covering a large number of official events. 

According to Manuel da Costa: "What is happening with the journalists in Cabinda is because they don't have any defence. They are limited. They are unable to denounce the harassments inflicted upon them or the authoritarian behaviour of the media directors. Journalists humiliate themselves in order to keep the bread for their families, but miserable bread at that!"

Isaías Soares, the Voice of America correspondent in Malanje province, tells of a parallel situation in that province. After he reported on the media situation in the province, he has become the main target of local authorities, constantly harassing him and banning him from entering public places. José Jamona, a state radio reporter in the same province, was forbidden to report "on the famine, misery and nakedness" of the displaced Angolan war victims in the province. Other journalists in the Malanje province are equally harassed, with local journalist Alentejo Costa even shot in the foot by a police officer without consequences.

Also in the diamond rich Lunda-Sul province, pressure against the media is permanent. As the Catholic-run Rádio Ecclésia run a story denouncing massacres against the civil population carried out by the government army, threats from the Army Commander of Eastern Front against the writing journalist have intimidated him to stay "away from stories involving the police and military" ever since. Journalist Guilherme Martins however still is the subject of continued death threats.

Source: Based on Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)

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