Mozambique: Reporters detained for alleged bribery of hotel owner both released

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Mozambique: Reporters detained for alleged bribery of hotel owner both released

11:11 CAT | 15 Jun 2020

Arsénio Sebastião (first from the left) and Jorge Malangaze (third from the left), after they were released. [Photo: Magazine CRV]

The two journalists arrested on Monday for alleged passive corruption in Sofala province (Mozambique) were on Friday returned to freedom, according to a source from the Southern African Media Institute (Misa-Mozambique).

“The court examined the case and found that there was no crime. The two were returned to freedom without payment of bail,” Ernesto Nhanale, executive director of MISA, an organisation linked to press freedom and which sponsored legal assistance to the two journalists, told Lusa.

Arsénio Sebastião, a Deutsche Welle (DW) correspondent, and Jorge Malangaze, a ‘freelance’ journalist, were accused by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of receiving bribes for not publishing a story related to the violation of the rules of the state of emergency in a hotel in Sofala, central Mozambique.

The two reporters allegedly photographed and filmed the establishment ‘crowded and with people consuming alcohol during the night’, violating the rules of the state of emergency, and according to the anti-corruption office in Sofala, blackmailed the owner, Manuel Ramissane, a member of the ruling party (Frelimo), who was allegedly led by the authorities to pretend that he agreed to bribe them both to avoid the release of the material.

on Friday, according to MISA, the court found that the journalists did not take the money and that there is no evidence of the alleged blackmail, and the two were immediately returned to freedom.

MISA promises to continue the process, noting that the two innocent reporters today have been harmed.

“We have an interest in this being clarified”, said the organisation, which had warned on Wednesday that journalists had been the target of “manipulation, staging, misuse of state power”.

“MISA believes that the arrest of the journalists has other motivations that should be investigated. For the sake of truth and the transparency of the process, therefore, the Prosecutor’s Office should open an internal investigation to find out what happened”, the organisation added in a statement issued on Wednesday.

Source: Lusa