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A Mozambican weekly paper “A Verdade” has been obliged to apologise after libeling a member of the National Elections Commission (CNE) whom it accused of corruption, without offering any evidence.
On 6 July, “A Verdade” published an article under the headline “New General Director of STAE will be chosen by the most corrupt member of the CNE”, and written by the paper’s news editor, Aderito Caldeira.
The CNE member in question is prominent journalist Salomao Moiana. STAE (Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat) is the executive body of the CNE. Its outgoing director, Felisberto Naife, resigned in April, after 15 years at the head of STAE.
The CNE must now organize the public tender to recruit a new General Director for STAE. Moiana has been appointed to chair the jury that will organize the public tender.
Exercising his right of reply, through his lawyers, Moiana said that he was appointed at a plenary session of the CNE, and the decision was unanimous.
But the accusation of corruption was completely unfounded. Throughout over 50 years of professional activity (as a teacher, a journalist, a company administrator, and most recently as a member of the CNE), Moiana said he had never been charged with crimes of corruption or condemned by any court for such crimes.
At no point in his article did Caldeira specify the corrupt acts which he claimed Moiana had committed. That was because there were no such acts. “Our client is a man of integrity, and he is not corrupt”, said the letter.
Caldeira, it continued, had descended to character assassination, and his article “violates the basic rules of journalism”, notably by not speaking to Moiana about the corruption claim.
There was no doubt, it continued, that Caldeira “acted in a premeditated manner with the objective of attacking the honour, dignity and good name of Salomao Moiana, and of besmirching the CNE and all its members”.
Caldeira had not only violated the 1991 Press Law but had “betrayed the journalists who fought for freedom of the press in this country”.
Moiana demanded an apology, and warned that, if one was not forthcoming, he reserved the right to start criminal proceedings against Caldeira and “A Verdade”.
The paper retreated and admitted that it had “flagrantly violated the honour, good name and prestige of Salomao Moiana, who had indeed never been accused of crimes of corruption. The “A Verdade” management and Caldeira personally presented “most respectful apologies” to Moiana.
It remains to be seen whether this will be sufficient to avert a libel suit.
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