Rights group calls out Mozambican authorities for attacking journos, academics

31 Août 2020

Maputo, Mozambique, August 31 (Infosplusgabon) - Amnesty International on Monday criticised  Mozambican authorities for attacking journalists, academics and others who hold critical views about the government.

Other people subjected to harassment, intimidation, abduction, and torture in recent years are researchers, the London-based human rights organization said in a press statement.

The ongoing assault against journalism in Mozambique took a shocking new turn on 23 August when a media house was petrol-bombed, Amnesty International said.

This was among the many cases it cited as it released a new briefing documenting attacks on press freedom and freedom of expression in the country.

On 23 August an unidentified group of people broke into the offices of the independent weekly newspaper Canal de Moçambique, doused them in petrol and set them alight with a Molotov cocktail, extensively destroying equipment, furniture and files.

“The attack on the Canal offices constitutes a turning point in the escalating crackdown on human rights in Mozambique," said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa.

The attack came four days after the newspaper published an investigative story alleging unethical procurement by politically connected individuals and senior government officials at the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy.

Canal  had also published, on 11 March 2020, a story entitled “The business of war in Cabo Delgado”, alleging the existence of an illegal secret contract between the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of the Interior and natural gas companies in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province.

According to the article, the two ministries provided services to the companies, but the payments for the services were deposited into the personal account of the then Minister of Defence, Atanásio Salvador Ntumuke, rather than that of the Ministry of Defence.

Muchena described the matter as "a shocking attack on press freedom and the most extreme manifestation yet of the increasing threat to journalists in Mozambique”.

“The authorities must undertake a prompt, thorough, impartial, independent and transparent investigation into this attack, and bring those responsible to justice.”

The new briefing is titled, "Media freedom in ashes: Repression of freedom of expression in Mozambique."

It documents several recent cases of journalists being arrested for politically motivated reasons, as well as cases where journalists have been harassed and grievously assaulted.

Many of the cases involve journalists and commentators attacked following publications and commentaries on corruption or misuse of public funds.

The human rights body cited other attacks on government critics and journalists, some stretching back to 2015.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/AFD/GABON2020

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