Maputo, 12 Jan (AIM) – The Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) has called for legal action against the district director of education in the northern city of Nacala for running over a reporter from the independent television station, TV Sucesso.
The incident happened last Monday, when the TV Sucesso reporter, Filesmar Agostinho, was interviewing teachers demonstrating outside the Nacala District Education Directorate. They were protesting against wage arrears, the failure to pay them for overtime, and the way they had been included in the new public administration wage scale (TSU).
Agostinho also tried to interview the district director, Alexandre Mario. But he and his cameraman were told that Mario was in a meeting, and so they would have to wait.
And so they waited. For five hours! When the meeting was over, the TV Sucesso team once again tried to speak with Mario. Once again they were told to wait.
But then they saw the director leave his office and head towards his car. The tried to intercept Mario, and shouted questions at him – but he refused to reply.
Instead he entered his car, and drove away at high speed. He hit Agostinho’s left leg, and damaged some of the television equipment. The director did not even stop to offer assistance to the man he had run over.
Bystanders helped Agostinho to reach Nacala general hospital. Despite the injury to his leg, Agostinho went on trying to contact the director by phone, but without success.
Inside the hospital, medical staff put the reporter’s leg in plaster. An orthopaedic doctor ordered rest for 30 days, with hospital check-ups every three days.
MISA contacted the district director, who merely smiled and told them to contact TV Sucesso. He would then answer “in the appropriate forums”. Mario hung up before MISA could ask any further questions.
In a press statement, MISA described the director’s attitude as “repugnant” and as “a serious attack against freedom of the press and the right to information”.
MISA recalled that, under the Mozambican constitution, freedom of the press and access to information are fundamental rights.
MISA added that it reserves the right to take the legal measures it deems necessary to hold the director responsible for his actions. Agostinho has already filed a case against the director at the Nacala district police command.
“As a state under the democratic rule of law, we cannot allow reporters to be run down, and their assailants to go unpunished, as if they had not committed a serious attack against press freedom”, said MISA.
“What Agostinho was trying to do is not a crime”, it added. “On the contrary, he was complying with a basic tenet of journalism, that of obtaining both sides of a story”.
The Mozambican state, MISA said, should “distance itself from these repugnant acts committed by a public servant who holds a leadership position”.
(AIM)
Pf/ (495)
