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Two journalists have been threatened in less than two weeks in Moatize in the Mozambican province of Tete, the most recent by the mayor himself. Journalists and MISA-Mozambique are worried.
The first case is related to the publication of the results of the October 10 municipal elections.
The day after the local elections, a journalist and editor of the weekly Malacha was threatened after publishing the results of the village’s 49 polling stations on his newspaper’s Facebook page.
The second concerns threats issued by Frelimo’s head of list.
This week, Fungai Caetano of the Zitmanews News Agency said he had been threatened by the current mayor of Moatize and head of Frelimo’s list, Carlos Portimão.
In an interview with DW Africa, the journalist says that the mayor threatened to beat him up after his Facebook account shared a Canal de Moçambique article which reported aggressive behaviour by the mayor towards the district director of the Technical Secretariat for Administration Electoral Office (STAE) in Moatize.
“He called me, using an unusual number, and identified himself as Portimão. For my safety, I recorded the call and he said he was looking for me and that he would beat me. I did not want to challenge him, I just tried to explain that the article was not my own, I had only shared it, ” Fungai Caetano told DW.
After the telephone conversation, the journalist circulated the audio of the conversation, in which the mayor was heard using offensive language to the reporter, on social networks.
Worried class
Journalists in Tete are worried about the latest developments. Reporter Mohamed Rafique says this is an attempt to silence them. “It is important that something is done so that this attempt does not work, or we will have a profession that is subject to restraints,” he says, adding that being threatened by a mayor is the worst aspect of things.
Other journalists in Tete, who did not want to go on record for fear of reprisals, condemn the attitude of the Moatize mayor and demand that he be held accountable.
The Southern African Social Communications Institute (MISA Mozambique), a journalists advocacy group, believes that “a threat to a journalist should merit condemnation at the highest level”, in this case “Frelimo itself”.
MISA Mozambique’s Lázaro Mabunda adds that the “party should publicly reprehend the individual” in question. “You cannot continue in a country where journalists cannot do their jobs freely for fear of threats from people who have ulterior motives and want to silence them,” he said.
Silent authorities
The fact that the authorities have not commented on the various instances of aggression and intimidation of journalists which have been happening all over the country worries MISA-Mozambique.
“We have never no public statement from the police condemning these actions, nor have we heard the government condemn them. This shows that the police themselves know who are doing this,” Mabunda says.
Caetano has already had his equipment stolen this year, while he was still a reporter for TV Miramar and just days after Portimão publicly said that the reporter was writing on topics in a way that was not good for the municipality.
DW Africa tried to contact Portimão for a comment on the accusations, but the mayor was unavailable. He promised to return the call, but has not done so so far.
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