Death threats against journalists and activists reported Mozambique Elections, AIM report

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Death threats against journalists and activists reported Mozambique Elections, AIM report

2:35 CAT | 16 Oct 2018

More Mozambican journalists and civil society activists are facing threats, including death threats, in the wake of last Wednesday’s municipal elections.

According to the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa), journalists on Radio Watana, a station belonging to the Catholic Church, in the northern port city of Nacala, have been receiving threatening phone calls from unknown individuals accusing them of contributing to the defeat of the ruling Frelimo Party in this city.

One of the journalists contacted the Nampula provincial nucleus of MISA-Mozambique and said “since last Friday, after the results were announced, I have received phone calls from private numbers saying that the Radio Watana journalists were responsible for Frelimo’s defeat, and we ought to take care”.

Radio Watana had journalists covering the Nacala polling stations and reporting in real time on the voting and on the count.

This was the second case reported to MISA in Nampula in less than 24 hours. The first was anonymous threats made to the director and deputy director of Radio Encontro in Nampula city, the catholic priests Benvindo Tapua e Cantífula de Castro, who both allegedly received death threats.

Like the Nacala journalists, they were accused of contributing to Frelimo’s defeat at the hands of the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo.

Also in Nampula, Antonio Mutoa, the chairperson of the “Sala da Paz” (“Peace Room”), which is an election observation platform set up by several civil society organisations, told MISA that he has received death threats. The anonymous callers also said they would kidnap his family, and claimed that his organisation had financed the Catholic Church radio stations “to disinform”.

In Chimoio, capital of the central province of Manica, members of Renamo physically attacked a reporter from the Miramar television station, who was covering disturbances taking place at the Renamo provincial headquarters. Renamo members had kidnapped and beaten their own provincial and city political delegates accusing them of taking money from Frelimo to facilitate Renamo’s defeat in Chimoio.

MISA-Mozambique described the attack against a media professional as “a serious assault on press freedom”. It urged the bodies of the administration of justice to identify those who had attacked the Miramar reporter and begin criminal proceedings against them.

MISA found it outrageous that political parties should blame the media for their election setbacks. “It is important to clarify that the media, in addition to providing information about the electoral process, have the responsibility to guarantee greater transparency and public knowledge of facts connected to the elections, which often do not please the political parties”, it added. “It is also important to understand that the media does not produce the election results, it reports them”.

Source: AIM