Mozambique: Outcry against threats made by senior civil servant – AIM report

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Mozambique: Outcry against threats made by senior civil servant – AIM report

7:13 CAT | 19 Feb 2020

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The Federation of Portuguese Language Journalists (FJLP) and Mozambique’s own National Union of Journalists (SNJ) have joined the outcry against the threats to critical journalists made by a senior civil servant, Juliao Joao Cumbane.

In a Facebook post published last week, under the title “The time for playing about is over” Cumbane openly called for violence against those who dare to report on the situation in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, where an islamist insurgency, using terrorist methods, is active in several districts.

Cumbane called on the defence and security forces to combine “intelligence and energetic actions, even extra-legal ones” against what he described as “despondent” news items.

The main targets for Cumbane’s threat are the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, and its editor, Marcelo Mosse. “Carta de Mocambique” is one of the few media that has reported regularly on the insurgency in Cabo Delgado.

Cumbane is not just another lunatic scribbling posts on Facebook that can safely be ignored. He is a senior academic who currently holds the position of Chairperson of the Board of the National Company of Science and Technology Parks, a position to which the government appointed him last year. When threats against press freedom come from someone in a senior position, it would be wise to take them seriously.

Cumbane is a prolific writer of tracts on Facebook in defence of the ruling Frelimo Party – although he holds no formal position in Frelimo, and has no authority to behave as though he were a spokesperson for the Party.

A joint statement from the FJLP and the SNJ described Cumbane’s post as “an extremely serious threat”, and demanded that the Mozambican authorities take a position towards this threat.

The two organisations condemned this “incitement to violence against the press and, consequently, against the Democratic Rule of Law”. Cumbane, this statement said, was calling for “the violation of fundamental rights”, and those bodies charged with defending constitutional rights in Mozambique should react.

The FJLP said it has already written to President Filipe Nyusi, stressing “the need to guarantee that the journalists of all the local and international media can undertake their work, which is necessary and fundamental for guaranteeing access to information for civilians, and the consolidation of democracy in Mozambique”.

Cumbane has replied to his critics with a petulant Facebook post refusing to apologise and claiming that he has been misinterpreted. He argues that “extra-legal” is not the same as “extra-judicial”, a piece of hair-splitting that is unlikely to impress human rights activists.

Source: AIM