MISA denounces illegal detention of journalist in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique

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MISA denounces illegal detention of journalist in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique

5:58 CAT | 10 Apr 2017

File photo / For illustration purposes only

The Mozambican chapter of the press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) has expressed “great concern” at the illicit detention by the police of freelance journalist Estacio Valoi in the northern city of Pemba last Friday.

Valoi was held for four hours at a Pemba police station. He had been covering the Pemba celebrations of Mozambican Women’s Day, events that were entirely public.

MISA-Mozambique says that the local police commander, Aires Aureliano, demanded that Valoi should take no photographs. But there is no law forbidding citizens from taking photos in public places.

When Valoi reminded the police officer of this, he was handcuffed, as if he were a criminal, and taken to the police station. No less than nine policemen, some of them in plain clothes, took part in the detention.

They threatened Valoi, switched off his cell phone and removed its memory card.

MISA-Mozambique describes this incident as “a serious violation of press freedom and of the right to information, particularly because it affected a journalist at a public event, to which anyone could have access and could take whatever photos they wanted”.

Valoi, the MISA release added, “was detained while exercising his professional function of collecting information that would later be published for consumption by the public”.

MISA-Mozambique condemned the behaviour of the police, and called for the policemen involved in harassing Valoi to be held responsible for their acts.

Valoi has specialised in reporting on poaching and his work on denouncing wildlife crime may well have won him powerful enemies.

Source: AIM