Maputo, 5 Apr (AIM) – The Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) has strongly condemned the manhandling of journalists’ equipment on Thursday by the press attache of President Filipe Nyusi.
The incident happened in the southern city of Matola, during a meeting of the National Committee of the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle (ACLLN).
Unexpectedly, a prominent veteran of the independence war, Oscar Monteiro, demanded the inclusion on the agenda of the meeting of the question of who is to succeed Filipe Nyusi as President of the ruling Frelimo Party. Whoever becomes Frelimo President will almost certainly also become the party’s candidate in the presidential election scheduled for 9 October.
The agenda for the meeting “deals with internal and organizational questions of our association”, said Momteiro, “and every now and then, these points must be discussed, but we cannot ignore the most important questions the country has to face”.
For Monteiro, the succession and the choice of the presidential candidate should be the key matters to be debated by ACCLN. “There is an elephant in the room, and that elephant is the elections”, he said.
Frelimo was “very late” in announcing the names of possible presidential candidates, and this delay might cost it dear at the ballot box.
All this was caught on camera and broadcast live on the independent television station “TV Sucesso”.
But at this point, the presidential press attache, Arsenio Henriques, intervened to switch off “TV Sucesso”. He did so personally, moving the camera away from Monteiro before he had finished giving his speech.
He then ordered all the journalists present to leave the room.
In a Friday press release, MISA described this as “gross interference” in the work of the journalists, who had been invited to cover the meeting and were duly accredited.
Ironically, Henriques himself is a journalist by profession. He used to be a senior figure on another independent television station, STV.
MISA points out that Henriques should know that journalism “is a noble profession, governed by constitutional principles, which are above any press attache”. Those principles include “the independence of journalists in the exercise of their profession”.
MISA said it recognized the right of Frelimo, or any other organization to hold events behind closed doors. On previous occasions, Henriques has politely asked journalists to leave to meetings, and reporters have never rejected such requests.
What was not reasonable, MISA added, was for a press attache to expel journalists from a meeting to which they had been invited. It was not acceptable for him to move the cameras in the very moment of recording.
MISA found it strange that Henriques only remembered that journalists were not supposed to be in the room when Monteiro was making a speech that apparently embarrassed the Frelimo leadership.
MISA regarded Henriques’ behaviour as “another act of censorship to avoid publication of the statements by Oscar Monteiro”. It was unacceptable that people linked to the same party which had invited the journalists to the meeting should throw them out “in a humiliating fashion”.
MISA argued that it is “the moral and ethical duty” of Frelimo and of its President to distance themselves from actions that call into question freedom of the press.
(AIM)
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