Journalists Union insists on impartiality in by-election

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Journalists Union insists on impartiality in by-election

8:43 CAT | 22 Jan 2018

DW (File photo)

The Nampula branch of Mozambique’s National Union of Journalists (SNJ) has denied granting support to any of the candidates in next week’s mayoral by-election in this northern municipality.

This week there was considerable outrage at a report carried by the Maputo daily “Noticias”, claiming that journalists in Nampula had offered support for the candidate of the ruling Frelimo Party, Amisse Cololo.

The “Noticias” piece, which appeared on Tuesday, alleged that Cololo had held meetings “with doctors, business people and journalists who guaranteed that they support his candidacy”.

The article did not say how many journalists supposedly offered Cololo their support, nor which media they came from.

The Nampula provincial secretary of the SNJ, Herminia Francisco, confirmed that Cololo had held a meeting “where journalists who wanted to go attended, but our organisation was not involved, either in the organisation or the invitation”. Indeed, the Nampula branch of the SNJ did not even know about the meeting.

“The SNJ rejects any link with this”, she said. “We are a non-partisan, socio-professional organisation which respects its own rules”.

She stressed that journalists are well aware of their code of conduct which binds them to be independent and impartial in election coverage

Francisco accused whoever wrote the “Noticias” piece of “bad faith”. That journalist might well, as an individual citizen, support the Frelimo candidate, but had no right to claim that all Nampula journalists shared his views.

According to Friday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Mediafax”, the journalists who attended the meeting with Cololo were from Radio Mozambique, Mozambique Television (TVM) and “Noticias” itself. These are all public sector media, and, under the country’s press law, they have a duty to report independently, free of political interference.

The chairperson of the Nampula branch of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa), Sitoi Lutxeque, accused journalists who publicly supported the Frelimo candidate of violating the principles of impartiality envisaged under the press law. Such behaviour stained the entire class of Mozambican journalists.

Friday’s issue of “Noticias” makes a half-hearted defence of the original article, saying that it told no lies, in that the meeting with Cololo did indeed take place. It added that the text did not mention any involvement of professional organisations such as the SNJ. But it did not say how many journalists made the alleged declaration of support for Cololo.

Meanwhile civil society bodies in Nampula have accused Frelimo of illegally using state assets in the by-election campaign. The law states that property such as state-owned vehicles cannot be used in political party campaigns.

The civil society bodies, cited by “Mediafax”, said that the use of state vehicles by Frelimo was an abuse of power, and they threatened to take Frelimo to court, by presenting a formal complaint to the police and to the local branch of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

A further violation by the Cololo campaign, they said, was holding meetings with public employees during normal working hours. One such meeting happened on Monday with workers at Nampula Central Hosp

Source: AIM