Authorities in Cape Verde in January and February 2022 opened investigations into three journalists for “qualified disobedience,” in connection with their reporting on a classified investigation into a police killing, which allegedly involves a minister and, after seven years, produced no suspects, according to the journalists and news reports.

On January 26, 2022, Hermínio Silves, editor of the privately owned news website the Santiago Magazine, was declared a formal suspect in a criminal investigation in connection with his reporting on an investigation into whether officers, allegedly led by the current minister of internal administration, killed a criminal suspect in 2014, according to Silves who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and news reports.

On February 4, officials at the Attorney General’s office in Praia, the capital, questioned and named reporter Daniel Almeida and director Alexandre Semedo, both of privately owned newspaper A Nação, as formal suspects for allegedly disclosing confidential judicial information in news reports about police abuse, also relating to the 2014 case, according to the journalists and their lawyer Mário Marques, who spoke to CPJ by phone and messaging app, and news reports.

Earlier in January 2022, CPJ reported that Silves was under investigation for alleged violations of Article 112 of the criminal procedural code with regard to judicial secrecy, related to his reporting on the case, but this was changed as the article does not apply to journalists, according to Silvino Fernandes, Silves’ lawyer, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

The investigation followed the publication of two articles, written by Silves and Almeida and published in the respective publications on December 28, 2021, and January 12, 2022, containing allegations that Paulo Rocha, the current minister of internal administration, was allegedly at the scene of a 2014 shooting that ended in the death of the suspect, in his then-capacity as deputy director of the judicial police, according to the journalists, Marques, and news reports.

Rocha’s adviser Carla Almeida, not related to the journalist, did not reply to CPJ’s emailed request for comment. In a previous email to CPJ about Silves’ summoning to the attorney general’s office for questioning, she forwarded a reply from Rocha denying the newspapers’ allegations and vowing he would “defend his dignity, good name, and public image with all legal means available.”

The three journalists were declared “arguidos,” a status unique to Portuguese legal systems in which people become formal suspects in the commission of a crime, and which can be a preliminary step to arrest or a formal charge, according to Fernandes. Under this declaration, the journalists and their outlets are barred from reporting on the investigation into alleged police abuses or risk a charge of contempt if they do.

The investigation could lead to a court indictment if Attorney General Luis Landim, who is personally handling the case, gathers enough evidence for Article 113, the crime of “qualified disobedience, which applies to the act of disclosing information under judicial secrecy,” Fernandes told CPJ. The journalists and face up to two years in prison or a fine to be set by a judge, according to Article 356 of the penal code, which CPJ reviewed.

The Cape Verde legal community is divided over whether Article 113 should apply to journalists, according to Marques, adding that he was among those including some prosecutors with the Attorney’s General’s office, who believe that the right to be informed prevailed over judicial secrecy and that the article should not apply to journalists.

The Cape Verdean journalists’ association, a local trade group, organized a protest on February 4 outside the attorney general’s office to coincide with Almeida and Semedo’s questioning, association president Geremias Furtado told CPJ by phone.

Luis Landim, the attorney general, told state television that the journalists’ protest was misdirected and his office was merely enforcing the law, according to news reports. CPJ emailed his spokesman Inelson Costa, who did not reply to requests for comment.

The journalists’ association and Cape Verde journalists will petition the National Assembly to amend the article so it does not apply to the media, Furtado told CPJ. On February 11, 2022, opposition members of parliament signaled their support for a review of the criminal procedure law to remove any impediments to media freedom, including Article 113  and Joana Rosa, the minister of justice, said the government was open to debate, if necessary, according to news reports.

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Cape Verdean authorities must drop their investigation into journalist Hermínio Silves and should not compel journalists to disclose confidential information about their sources or criminalize the disclosure of information in the public interest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Since early January, the attorney general’s office in Praia, the capital, has issued three summonses to Silves, editor of the privately owned news website Santiago Magazine, over his reporting on alleged police abuses, according to a report by Santiago Magazine; Silves, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview; and copies of the summonses, which CPJ reviewed.

The three summonses – sent on January 3, 5, and 12 – concern alleged violations of Cape Verde’s judicial secrecy laws. If convicted of violating judicial secrecy, Silves could face six months to four years in prison under Cape Verde’s penal code.

The journalist is ordered to appear at the Praia attorney general’s office for questioning on January 26.

“Prosecutors in Cape Verde must stop hounding journalist Hermínio Silves and should abandon their fishing expedition into his confidential sources,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Journalists must be able to report on alleged abuses by officials without fear that they will be subject to legal harassment or see their reporting on issues in the public interest be criminalized.”

On December 26, Silves published a report in Santiago Magazine on an investigation into the potential involvement of the judicial police and Minister of Internal Administration Paulo Rocha in the alleged murder and torture of a criminal suspect in 2014, when Rocha was deputy director of the judicial police.

On December 30, the attorney general’s office published a statement confirming the investigation into the alleged murder, but denied it had summoned Rocha. The statement added, “Santiago Magazine’s report alleges it had access to classified documents” and that authorities therefore “ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged crime of violation of judicial secrecy” and sought to identify the source of those documents.

Rocha’s adviser Carla Almeida emailed CPJ a statement from the minister denying all the allegations against him, and adding that he would defend “my dignity, my good name and public image” with all legal means available.

The January 3 summons names Silves and Santiago Magazine as witnesses in an investigation into violations of the judicial secrecy law; the January 5 summons overrode the previous one, and names them as defendants; and the January 12 summons, which overrode both previous summons, says the journalist is expected to appear and that “the decision whether they [Silves and the outlet] are witnesses or defendants” would be made on the day of his appearance, according to the summonses and Silves’ lawyer, Silvino Fernandes, who spoke to CPJ via phone.

Silves told CPJ that the summonses send “a message to all journalists that some people are off limits.” He said he believed the attorney general’s office was “retreating” after issuing the second summons, because of an outcry among media workers that he had been labeled as a defendant.

He told CPJ that he planned to attend the questioning with his lawyer, but said, “my sources, they won’t get from me.”

When CPJ called the Praia attorney general’s office, a representative requested that questions be sent to the office’s spokesperson, Inelson Costa. Costa replied by referring CPJ to a January 20 statement by the Public Ministry, saying that authorities were investigating a suspected violation of judicial secrecy.

That statements says that, while journalists are not themselves bound by judicial secrecy laws, they can still face other penalties under Article 133 of the criminal procedure code for committing “qualified disobedience” by disclosing confidential judicial information; under the penal code, that could be punished by up to two years in prison or a fine to be set by a judge.

Geremias Furtado, president of the Cape Verdean Journalists Association, a local trade group, told CPJ via messaging app that he considered the investigation to be an attack on media freedom.

On January 13, Cape Verde President José Neves told reporters that everything possible should be done to protect press freedom. He said journalists should not be guilty of a crime if they access and publish confidential information, and the responsibility should lie with whoever managed that information.

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Freedom of the Press 2007: Cape Verde

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(RSF/IFEX) – According to RSF, on 18 February 1998, programming of the
private radio station, Radio Comercial, was suspended by the government. The
explanation offered by authorities is that the frequency given to Radio
Comercial in 1997 was provisional. According to radio station management, of
whom one shareholder is president of the opposition African Party for the
Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV), the suspension is discriminatory because
other temporary frequencies given to independent and public radio stations
have not been the subject of suspensions.

Recommended Action

Antonio Mascarenhas Montero

President of the Republic of Cape Verde

Presidency of the Republic

Praia

Cape Verde

Fax: +238 61 34 16

Ministry of Communication

Praia

Fax: +238 61 43 69

c/o the Cape Verde embassy in your country