Mozambique: For second time, police illegally ban press conference

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Mozambique: For second time, police illegally ban press conference

9:03 CAT | 20 Jan 2022

Photo: ARDH on Facebook

For the second time in the space of a month, the Mozambican police have illegally banned a press conference called by the Human Rights Network Association (ARDH).

The ARDH called the press conference to react to the Maputo Municipal Council’s decision to increase the municipal poll tax from 486 meticais (about 7.5 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) to 510 meticais.

This tax is paid annually, and should be deducted from the wages of all those in waged employment.

The ARDH planned to react on Wednesday, but found the path to the site booked for the press conference blocked by the police. No explanation was given for the police action.

The ARDH is calling for the increase in the poll tax to be reversed at once. The increase, it claims, “does not reflect socio-economic reality”, and did not take into account the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years.

The ARDH also believed the increase violated constitutional principles, and those which underlie general tax legislation.

The ARDH also wants the Municipal Council to publish financial reports on the impact of the poll tax in previous years.

The police behaviour is a clear violation of the freedom of assembly. No law gives the police any power to ban press conferences or other peaceful gatherings. Organisers are not required to notify the police or any other authority of press conferences.

The same illegal police behaviour occurred on 31 December, when the ARDH attempted to hold a press conference to express its opposition to the increase in bus fares that came into effect the following week.

On that occasion, the ARDH was kept out of the building it had intended to use, and when the head of the ARDH Maputo delegation tried to address journalists on the pavement, he was dragged into a police truck.

Source: AIM