Newspaper sued for publishing caricature of bank administrator

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Newspaper sued for publishing caricature of bank administrator

2:16 CAT | 29 Jun 2018

in file CoM

The editor of Mozambican weekly newspaper Canal de Moçambique, Matias Guente, today faces a lawsuit filed by former Mozambican bank administrator Joana Matsombe following a cartoon the newspaper published involving the complainant.

In the caricature, inserted in the humorous page of the newspaper ‘Canalha’, Joana Matsombe appears in a swimming pool with the former governor of the Bank of Mozambique, Ernesto Gove, in shorts, along with the captions ‘Nosso Banco’ and ‘Banking Supervision’.

“With the caricature, we wanted to stress that the central bank knew about the deterioration of Nosso Banco’s situation, and that Bank of Mozambique officials were aware of Nosso Banco’s dangerous situation and insolvency,” the editor of Canal de Moçambique told Lusa.

Nosso Banco is in the process of being liquidated by the Bank of Mozambique, after the central bank forced it to cease operations in 2016 due to its “financial and prudential deficit situation, putting at risk the interests of depositors and other creditors, as well as the normal functioning of the banking system”.

Guente said that Matsombe had accused the newspaper of slander and defamation and demanded compensation of two million meticais (about EUR 28,700).

“We portrayed Matsombe because, as the administrator of the Bank of Mozambique, she spoke on behalf of the institution about the situation of Nosso Banco,” said Guente.

Despite attempts, Lusa could not contact Matsombe’s lawyer.

Guente said that he had been found guilty in three other cases of slander and defamation, including one filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office following cartoons published in the ‘Canalha’ about the head of state, Filipe Nyusi.

The trial, at the Judicial Court in Maputo, is scheduled to begin today at 09:00 am

Source: Lusa