The Mozambique journalist Joao Chamusse was on Thursday morning killed outside his house in the capital Maputo, the latest in a string of attacks against the media in the Southern African country.

Chamusse was the co-owner and editor of the online daily publication Ponto por Ponto.

The police are yet to release a statement on Chamusse’s killing, with questions raised about the motive behind the attack. The journalist’s mobile phone and laptop are yet to be accounted for.

In a statement, MISA Mozambique said it condemned the killing of the journalist, describing it as a “setback for democratic country, where the media is a fundamental pillar”.

MISA Mozambique urged the police to act quickly in bringing those responsible for the murder to account, as this would send a message to would-be perpetrators that impunity for crimes against journalists would not be tolerated.

The killing of Chamusse follows the enforced disappearance of Ibraimo Mbaruco, who has not been accounted for since 2020.

In 2015, the journalist Paulo Machava was killed in a drive-by shooting while on his way home.

MISA’s position

MISA strongly condemns the killing of Chamusse and demands that the authorities prioritise the investigations leading to his death.

With all the unsolved cases on attacks against media workers, MISA fears that a culture of impunity for crimes against journalists is being entrenched in Mozambique.

If this case is left unsolved, as previous cases, it will only help to embolden would-be perpetrators of crimes against journalists.

Impunity for crimes against journalists deters freedom of expression and of the media, leading to the demise of democracy, as these rights are critical to public participation and civic engagement.

MISA seeks to remind Mozambican authorities that, under both domestic and international law, they have a responsibility to promote comprehensive  prevention, protection and justice policies to address impunity for crimes against journalists.

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On June 12, 2023, Paulo Vahanle, the mayor of the northern Mozambique city of Nampula, refused access to two reporters at a municipal event and accused a third of being a “spy,” according to media reports and the three journalists, who spoke to CPJ.

Vahanle, a member of the opposition Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo) party, which governs Nampula, asked every journalist who attended the event to identify their employer. When Elisa Fernando, a reporter with the local affiliate of the national state-owned broadcaster Televisão de Moçambique (TVM), and José Arlindo, a camera operator with the outlet, identified themselves, Vahanle refused to begin proceedings unless they left, Fernando told CPJ.

Fernando told CPJ that Vahanle accused TVM of not covering his Eid message marking the end of Ramadan and then “simply turned his back and left.” Fernando said she and Arlindo pleaded with the mayor’s spokesperson Nelson Carvalho to let them continue reporting but, after speaking with Vahanle, Carvalho told them that the mayor refused to speak in their presence.

The journalists told CPJ that they felt humiliated and were worried about their safety after some of the supporters present at the event started chanting “Get out” and that TVM was “rubbish.”

At the same event, Carvalho briefly confiscated the phone of Areno Fugão, a reporter with the privately owned newspaper Wampula Fax, saying the journalist could not record the mayor’s speech without authorization, Fugão told CPJ. When he started recording with another phone, Vahanle stopped him and accused him of being “a spy,” prompting people among the 300 Renamo supporters at the scene to jeer and boo him, he said.

Fugão told CPJ that members of the crowd also accused him of being a “thief” and a supporter of the ruling Frelimo party. “I walked to the back so as not to exacerbate the situation. I feared I could be beaten,” he said.

The three journalists told CPJ that they stopped reporting from the scene because they feared for their safety.

Also at that event, Renamo supporters jeered Lino Mpaque, a reporter with the privately owned newspaper Noticias, after he questioned Vahanle about his alleged failure to deliver on a political promise.

“Vahanle responded aggressively” and “used the crowd to intimidate and humiliate us,” Mpaque told CPJ.

The Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) issued a statement, and trade group the National Union of Journalists (SNJ) published a protest letter, reviewed by CPJ, condemning the “hostile environment Vahanle has created for the press.”

Arlindo, who is also the SNJ secretary in Nampula province, told CPJ that journalists covering the run-up to Mozambique’s municipal elections in October fear intimidation because Vahanle could turn his supporters against them as he had done on June 12.

In a phone interview with CPJ, Carvalho accused the journalists of being biased against Renamo and said that Fugão had begun recording before the official proceedings started, which he was not allowed to do.

When CPJ called Vahanle, he said he was “tired of being mistreated by the media at the service of the central government,” and accused them of attempting to “sabotage” his work.

He said the crowd of Renamo supporters jeered the journalists because “the people of Nampula are also tired of not feeling represented.”

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On January 15, 2023, five Mozambique border police officers detained and beat journalist Rosário Cardoso, according to media reports, statements by the National Forum of Community Radios and the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa, and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ by phone.

Cardoso left the community radio station Thumbine in Milange, a town in the eastern province of Zambezia, at about 10:15 p.m., when the officers stopped him and demanded to know why he was out so late, the journalist told CPJ.

Cardoso explained that he had just finished the late shift as an announcer at the station and showed them his work-branded T-shirt and national ID. The agents told him to wait with a group of people they had rounded up and left him for about two hours on the side of the road, the journalist said.

“I could see they were letting go only those who paid them bribes. Then, after all that time waiting, they got angry at me because I told them it wasn’t fair for those who don’t have money to pay bribes to have to wait,” Cardoso said.

In response, two officers threw him on the ground, beating him with their batons more than 10 times on the buttocks while telling him, “Mister journalist, here you don’t speak,” he told CPJ. The journalist said he was let go a few minutes later and told by the officer in charge that he could go and complain, but that nothing would come from it.

Later that night, Cardoso was treated at a local clinic and given painkillers.

The next day, the journalist filed a complaint with the Milange police station. The police officer in charge refused to register his complaint, arguing that Cardoso could not identify the agents who beat him, according to the journalist. Cardoso said he could not identify the officers because they yelled at him not to stare at them.

“It took six hours of waiting and the arrival of a higher-ranking officer for the afternoon shift for us to able to make the complaint,” the journalist said. CPJ reviewed a copy of that complaint.

Xadeque Mathala, the radio coordinator at Thumbine, accompanied Cardoso to file the complaint.

“Even though this is the first time that it got this far, intimidation and threats against journalists in the province are frequent, and violence from authorities towards the media worsens in election years,” Mathala told CPJ via message app, in reference to local elections scheduled for October.

Laurino Luis Omar, commander of the Milange border police, told CPJ via phone call that, to his knowledge, “Cardoso was not working at the time of the incident and might have been under the influence of alcohol, so the officers tried to secure his safety.” Omar added that the investigation of the case remains ongoing.

Cardoso told CPJ that he had not been drinking.

A clerk at the Milange prosecutor’s office, who did not want to be identified, confirmed via phone that the office is reviewing the case.

CPJ has documented the detention or beating of more than a dozen journalists by Mozambican authorities since 2021.

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Following four-day visit, IPI remains alarmed by situation of press freedom and independent journalism in the country

Mozambique should urgently take concrete steps to safeguard press freedom and expand the space for independent journalism as crucial pillars of the country’s young democracy, the International Press Institute (IPI) said following a four-day visit to the country. This must include ensuring the independence of regulatory bodies from political interference and swift criminal investigations in cases of attacks on journalists.

Throughout the week, the high-level IPI delegation, led by IPI Executive Board Chair Khadija Patel, engaged in a substantive dialogue with a range of stakeholders that included journalists, civil society, government, political parties, and members of the diplomatic community. The goal of these conversations was to learn more about the media environment and the challenges that journalists in Mozambique face in being able to do their work freely, independently, and safely.

At the conclusion of these meetings, IPI remains gravely concerned about increasing restrictions on press freedom and the shrinking space for independent journalism in the country. While we welcome statements by some government officials expressing support for press freedom, our conversations this week have shown that independent journalism is under significant pressure and that urgent action is needed in order to prevent further deterioration of press freedom and to safeguard democracy in Mozambique.

A key concern is the uncertain and unclear legal and regulatory environment under which the country’s media operate. The country’s constitution, 1991 Press Law, and 2014 freedom of information law set out strong formal press freedom and access to information guarantees. However, in practice implementation of these guarantees is weak and media are subject to a range of informal government controls that restrict access to information and limit independent reporting on a range of important issues of public interest, including the use of state resources and the conflict in Cabo Delgado.

The media are also subject to strong controls by the government’s information office, known as GABINFO, which is under the auspices of the office of the prime minister. This is especially evident in the area of accreditation of journalists, which GABINFO uses as a tool to control the press, and particularly the work of foreign journalists.

Mozambique is currently considering two draft media laws that are intended to update the 1991 Press Law – a goal that is broadly shared in principle by numerous stakeholders. However, the draft media laws in their current form would be a major setback for press freedom and require urgent revision in a number of areas in order to bring these proposals into alignment with domestic, regional, and international democratic standards and obligations. Of paramount importance is to ensure that any media regulatory body be fully independent of the government – including regarding the procedures for nominating the body’s members – and have a clearly defined mandate under the law.

We welcome commitments made by some government officials with whom we spoke to receive input from our delegation on ways to improve the draft media laws. We also urge the government to work in full consultation with domestic and international stakeholders to produce a revised media law package that complies with domestic and international freedom of expression standards.

We are also deeply alarmed by reports of escalating physical attacks and threats against journalists, together with a pattern of impunity for these crimes. This includes the disappearance of journalist Ibrahim Mbaruco in Cabo Delgado in April 2020, as well as recent attacks on journalists and media outlets in other parts of the country, including in Maputo. IPI raised key cases as well as the broader issue of impunity with government stakeholders during the visit, including the country’s deputy attorney general, urging swift action.

All states must ensure that members of journalists and civil society can carry out their work freely and without fear of attacks, intimidation or harassment. In addition, all states under international law have a duty to investigate attacks on journalists promptly, thoroughly, and independently, and to prosecute those responsible. This obligation does not disappear in a conflict zone, such as Cabo Delgado. On the contrary, states are legally bound under international law and international humanitarian law to ensure the safety of journalists and media workers in situations of conflict.

We renew our call on the country’s authorities to expedite investigations into attacks on journalists and media outlets in all parts of the country to prevent impunity and comply with international norms on the safety of journalists. IPI will continue to follow up with public authorities to ensure that there is improvement in this area.

Mozambique faces a number of broader political and social challenges, including the ongoing conflict in Cabo Delgado as well as the challenge of reinforcing the country’s 30-year old democracy. Meeting such challenges requires a robust, pluralistic, and free media. Developing and maintaining legal and regulatory environments that enable a free and independent media to flourish is especially challenging in today’s media environment – and is a challenge many countries around the world today face. IPI stands ready to work with all stakeholders in Mozambique to help ensure that the country’s media can operate freely and independently.

The IPI delegation was led by IPI Executive Board Chair Khadija Patel, forrmer IPI Executive Board Chair Markus Spillmann, IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen, IPI Director of Advocacy Amy Brouillette, and IPI Africa Programme Manager Patience Zirima.

These preliminary findings will be followed by a more developed report that includes recommendations on key issues.

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Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi should not sign amendments to the country’s anti-terror legislation into law and should instead ask parliament to change a sweeping clause that could criminalize reporting about the insurgency in northern Mozambique, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Tuesday.On June 3, the amendment bill was sent to Nyusi for assent, António Boene, the chairman of the National Assembly’s Commission on Constitutional and Legal Affairs, told CPJ via messaging app.

The bill, which was passed by parliament on May 19, seeks to amend Mozambique’s 2018 anti-terror law, including an overly broad clause that would penalize anyone who publicly reproduces false statements relating to terrorist acts with a prison term of between two and eight years, according to media reports and a statement by the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom group Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA).

“Reproducing statements is, after all, one of the hallmarks of journalism,” said Misa-Mozambique in the statement.

The government has argued that the amendments are necessary in order to strengthen the legal framework for the fight against terrorism because of an ongoing insurgency and terrorist attacks in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, according to a report by the Mozambican state news agency (AIM) and a government document, reviewed by CPJ, that was introduced in the National Assembly in March 2022.

“Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi must not sign the anti-terror amendment bill into law, but should instead return it to the National Assembly to correct the defects and ensure that reporting on the insurgency in Cabo Delgado is not criminalized or censored,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Members of parliament have already watered down other controversial clauses in the bill, but the president must ensure they go a step further to protect media freedom and the public’s right to information, instead of trying to control the narrative in Mozambique’s ongoing fight against terrorism.”

On May 18, the National Assembly approved the first reading of the anti-terror amendment bill, which included a controversial clause stating that anyone intentionally spreading information about a terrorist act, if they know the information to be false, can be punished with a prison term of eight to 12 years, according to media reports and CPJ’s review of the bill.

The bill also included prison terms of between 12 and 16 years for anyone who publishes “classified information” about terrorism, according to the AIM report and the draft legislation, reviewed by CPJ.

In a May 17 statement ahead of the first reading of the bill, MISA-Mozambique urged parliament to amend those clauses, saying they threatened press freedom. It said that criminalizing the publication of classified information punished journalists and ordinary citizens, rather than the officials who failed in their duty to safeguard state secrets. The organization also objected to the false information clause, arguing that the wording was ambiguous and had the potential to be applied arbitrarily.

In the bill’s second reading on May 19, the National Assembly’s Commission on Constitutional and Legal Affairs watered down those two clauses by criminalizing the divulging of classified information by public servants only, rather than citizens in general. It also lowered the prison term to between two to eight years for violating the false information clause, according to the AIM report.

Boene said these amendments were approved and the bill was forwarded to the  president on June 3 to be signed into law.

Ernesto Saúl, MISA-Mozambique’s program manager, told CPJ in a messaging app call that despite the National Assembly’s efforts to amend some of the clauses, the proposed law could still jeopardize the practice of journalism, particularly by punishing anyone who publicly reproduced statements about acts of terrorism.

“We just have to remember that the government has denied terrorist acts in Cabo Delgado for months after the first reports, and many journalists were at the time accused of spreading lies, so the government can very well use this to silence coverage altogether,” said Saúl.

Moreover, journalists may publish news about plans of imminent attacks that could easily be considered false news by the government, said Saúl.

Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Center for Democracy and Development, a local human rights group, told CPJ via messaging app that the bill was aimed at closing down civic space and was intended to punish and threaten anyone who even discussed terrorism. “It limits the scope of work of the civil society and of journalists, a tendency of the government that was already visible and is a serious setback for the human rights gains that Mozambicans had fought for,” he said.

Emília Moiane, director of the Mozambican government’s information office, told CPJ by phone that she did not believe that the proposed law would violate the right to press freedom, as one of the principles of journalism was to publish only the truth.

“We believe journalists follow this principle. Terrorism is not a subject to talk about without certainty,” said Moiane, who was not able to say when the president was expected to sign the bill into law.

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Statement on International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists

As the world commemorates the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists, MISA urges the authorities in Mozambique to account for the whereabouts of journalist Ibraimo Mbaruco.

Mbaruco has been missing since April 2020.

This is very worrying because of the chilling similarities of his unknown fate with that of Tanzanian journalist, Azory Gwanda, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances in November 2017. The Tanzanian government only reported him as dead in 2019. Gwanda was investigating a spate of high profile killings in the Rufiji area when he went missing.

It is, therefore, inexplicable, given the state machinery at the disposal of the Mozambican government, that a human being, let alone a journalist, can just vanish from the face of the earth, leaving his traumatised family in the dark as to what could have happened.

The seemingly lackadaisical, if not offhand manner, with which the Mozambican government is handling this serious matter, is disconcerting and raises unnecessary speculation and conspiracies on who was involved in Mbaruco’s disappearance.

Throughout the world, it is the State’s responsibility to ensure the safety and security of its citizens, including journalists.

Mbaruco’s last known message was that he was surrounded by soldiers.

His fate is not a matter that should easily be swept beneath the carpet but deserves the serious attention of the Mozambican government for the knowledge and peace of his family and colleagues. Allowing the perpetrators to go unpunished will spawn and perpetuate a culture of impunity that poses great risk to the work of journalists whose profession is at the core of accountable governance, respect for fundamental human rights and socio-economic development.

Our concerns come at a time when the southern African region is experiencing unprecedented upsurges in media freedom violations in member countries previously envied as paragons of media freedom.

For instance, a South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) crew was allegedly held against their will and threatened by African National Congress (ANC) supporters in Buffelshoek, Bushuckridge in Mpumalanga on October 21, 2021.

The news crew had to be rescued by the police.

According to the SABC news website, the ANC supporters, numbering about 20, threatened to burn the broadcaster’s vehicle and take the crew’s equipment.

At least four community radio stations were vandalised, with equipment worth tens of thousands of United States dollars destroyed during protests in South Africa following the incarceration of that country’s former president, Jacob Zuma.

The radio stations that fell victim to the protesters are Alex FM, in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, Mams Radio, In Mamelodi, northeast of Pretoria, West Side FM, in Kagiso, west of Johannesburg and Intokozo FM, in Durban.

In Malawi, a group of 10 Malawi police officers on January 22, 2021, allegedly assaulted an investigative journalist, Henry Mhango, while he was reporting on compliance with COVID-19 regulations.

Nine journalists were on September 30, 2021, arrested by members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police while at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) offices in Harare.

The journalists, Leopold Munhende, Thomas Madhuku, Nyashadzashe Ndoro, Robert Tapfumaneyi, Marshal Bwanya, Gaddaffi Wells, Adrian Matutu, Tongai Mwenje, and Tinashe Muringai, had gone to the ZEC offices to cover a demonstration by members of the opposition MDC Alliance.

The journalists were taken to Harare Central Police Station before being released without charge, following the intervention of lawyer Chris Mhike.

MISA urges other SADC governments to take a leaf from the action of the Zambian Information and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary, Amos Malupenga, in his quest to safeguard media freedom and the rights of journalists.

Malupenga marched to the police headquarters in Lusaka on March 12, 2021, demanding that law enforcement agents do more to protect journalists who were facing increased attacks and harassment.

As highlighted by UNESCO, impunity for crimes against journalists damages societies by covering serious human rights abuses, corruption and crime.

We, therefore, urge authorities to investigate crimes committed against journalists on duty and prosecute the perpetrators, as this will send clear messages that society does not tolerate attacks against the media.

As has been pointed out, impunity damages whole societies by covering up serious human rights abuses, corruption, and crime.

The media is at the core of citizens’ right to free expression and accountable governance.

Golden Maunganidze
MISA Regional Chairperson

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By Edrine Wanyama

In April 2021, Mozambique’s human rights record will be assessed under the Universal Peer Review (UPR) process at the United Nations Human Rights Council. The assessment will need to shine a light on Mozambique’s record on online and offline rights to privacy, access to information, and free expression, which are increasingly under threat in the southern African country.

The UPR process offers all UN member states the opportunity to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situation in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. In the previous review, nine of the 227 recommendations made to Mozambique were related to freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information. In response, the Mozambican government supported six of the nine recommendations and by implication was to take steps and measures that aim to protect and promote the respective rights. However, various developments in the country make it imperative to reflect on recommendations made during Mozambique’s last UPR assessment, with a view to supporting the realisation of digital freedoms as part of the upcoming review.

Despite constitutional provisions for freedom of expression, freedom of the press and the right to information, in 2018 Mozambique introduced a draconian media law, Decree No. 40/2018. The legislation was revoked two years later in May 2020 following a Constitutional Court petition by six organisations – Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Mozambique Chapter, Association of Journalistic Companies, National Forum of Community Radios, Centre for Public Integrity, Mozambican Bar Association and the Emergency Committee for the Protection of Fundamental Freedoms. The court declared that the decree was unconstitutional since it introduced prohibitive costs on the exercise of the journalism profession for foreign correspondents and local freelance journalists.

Mozambique is ranked 104 out of 180 countries in the RSF 2020 World Press Freedom Index, which is a drop by one position from 2019. Journalists and media houses are threatened by an increasingly shrinking operating space. Indeed, the October 2019 general election was marred by attacks on the media, which included the use of threatening messages through social media and SMS. Some journalists, especially in the northern part of the country, were intimidated while others were arrested, persecuted, detained and prosecuted.

More recently, the insurgency in Cabo Delgado and the Covid-19 State of Emergency have elicited state measures that threaten freedom of expression, opinion and the right to access information. Notably, the decree that instituted a state of emergency barred the media from transmitting Covid-19 information that is “contrary to official information”, arbitrarily restricting journalistic information and interfering with editorial independence.

There is some goodwill for openness by the government and increasing numbers of persons using the internet – yet Mozambique has a low score in internet affordability with women being most affected. As of 2018, only 20.8% of Mozambique’s population used the internet, while 26 in every 100 inhabitants had a mobile broadband subscription. As of January 2019, the internet penetration rate stood at 17%.

Amidst a narrowing civic space, there are some measures to improve cybersecurity yet, worryingly, the country has dropped on the Global Cybersecurity Index by 23 places. On individual privacy protections online, Mozambique is still without a data protection law. However towards the end of 2019, Mozambique revised its Penal Code, introducing provisions related to the invasion of privacy. The new Penal Code provisions outlawed the interception, recording, transmission or disclosure of online communications, including email, messages, audio-visual and social media content without consent.

To buttress the protection and enjoyment of digital rights, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), Small Media,  Fórum das Associações Moçambicanas das Pessoas com Deficiência (FAMOD) and the Associação de Cegos e Amblíopes de Moçambique have made a joint stakeholder submission on digital rights in Mozambique. The submission focuses on various developments in the country on freedom of expression and opinion, freedom of information and censorship of content, the right to equal access and opportunity, and the right to data protection and privacy on the internet. It draws experiences from Mozambique’s review of January 19, 2016.

Below are some of the recommendations made in the submission:

1. Enhance capacity building efforts to enforce the right to information law, including encouraging proactive disclosure and compliance with timely responses to information requests.
2. Repeal provisions of the Covid-19 Emergency Decree, which are contrary to national and international obligations on freedom of expression and access to information and promote open reporting and commentary on issues of public concern.
3. Institute an independent body to investigate, hold accountable and deter security forces who repeatedly violate journalists’ rights, especially those covering elections and the insurrection in the North.
4. Implement measures to promote inclusive access for marginalised and vulnerable groups including women, rural communities and persons with disabilities, with funding from the Universal Service Fund.
5. Enact a data protection law, in line with international and regional standards through multi-stakeholder consultative processes.

See the full submission here.

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Authorities in Mozambique should conduct a quick and thorough investigation into the arson attack on Canal de Moçambique, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

At about 8 p.m. yesterday, in the capital, Maputo, unidentified individuals broke into the office used by the independent weekly investigative newspaper and its daily digital publication CanalMoz, poured gasoline on the furniture and equipment, and set it ablaze, according to news reports.

The fire destroyed the newsroom, furniture, and all the equipment used for content production, as well as the paper’s archive, according to a statement by the Mozambican chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, a regional press rights group, which CPJ reviewed.

“The attack on Canal de Moçambique’s office is the latest chapter in an ever-worsening environment for the independent press in Mozambique and a blatant assault on democracy and the public’s right to know,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “We urge Mozambique’s authorities to speedily and credibly investigate the attack and ensure that it does not become yet another example of the impunity that is becoming the norm with attacks on the press in Mozambique.”

In a statement on his official Facebook page, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said he strongly condemned the attack, and said he had instructed authorities to investigate.

Matias Guente, the paper’s executive editor, told CPJ via messaging app that the attackers “are trying just to shut down the paper, because they know how relevant we are to democracy.”

He called the attack “terrorism against freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

The Center for Democracy in Mozambique, a local human rights group, said in a statement reviewed by CPJ that the attack could be linked to a Canal de Moçambique investigation into alleged corruption among top officials involved with the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, which was published last week. The ministry suspended a fuel marketing deal following that investigation, according to that statement.

Police spokesman Orlando Mudumane did not reply to a request for comment via messaging app.

Guente and Canal de Moçambique have faced official harassment and intimidation in recent years, the journalist told CPJ.

On December 31, 2019, unidentified assailants beat Guente and attempted to kidnap him, according to news reports from the time. In June 2020, the attorney general’s office questioned him for allegedly contravening state secrets for publishing information about a security contract between the government and a multinational oil consortium in the Cabo Delgado province, according to reports and Guente.

Guente told CPJ today that he believed the incidents were related, including his attempted kidnapping, adding that the police had yet to report back on its investigation more than nine months later.

Meanwhile, police have yet to credibly investigate and report back on the disappearance of radio journalist Ibraimo Mbaruco, who went missing on April 7 in Cabo Delgado, after he sent a text message to a colleague that he was “surrounded by soldiers,” as CPJ documented at the time.

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Mozambican authorities should not contest journalist Omardine Omar’s appeal and should allow him and all members of the press to work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On June 30, the Ka Mpfumo court in Maputo, the capital, convicted Omar, a reporter for the privately owned news website Carta de Moçambique, on charges of civil disobedience, the journalist told CPJ via messaging app. A fixer and another individual who were with Omar at the time were also convicted, he told CPJ.

Judge Francisca Antonio ignored the prosecutor’s request that charges be dropped and sentenced Omar to 15 days in jail for allegedly violating the country’s COVID-19 lockdown, but then converted that sentence to a fine of 13,734 meticais (US$200), according to the journalist and an article in Carta de Moçambique. He is appealing the fine, according to Omar and his editor, Marcelo Mosse, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

Police detained Omar on June 25 while he was investigating a complaint about police harassment and extortion of street vendors who were evicted two weeks earlier from the city’s Estrela Vermelha market, he told CPJ.

Police held Omar at the Machava Central Prison until June 28, when he was released following his lawyer’s intervention, according to news reports and Mosse.

“Omardine Omar was detained by the very police force he was investigating for alleged corruption, and it is disturbing that the judge proceeded despite a prosecutor asking that the charges be dropped. His conviction must be reversed on appeal,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Mozambican authorities must send an unequivocal message that wearing a uniform is not a license to abuse journalists and citizens under the guise of enforcing COVID-19 regulations.”

Omar told CPJ that he was on his way to meet a source when heavily armed police surrounded his vehicle. He told his fixer, Luis Nhampossa, to film the officers, because it was the type of conduct that the traders had complained about. Omar said he identified himself as a journalist and asked the police which emergency regulations allowed then to act in this way.

In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Omar said police took exception to the question, and he, Nhampossa, and Omar’s cousin, Joao Rachide Andre, were hit, kicked, and trampled upon, and then detained at a police station. Omar told CPJ he was beaten on the buttocks, legs, and fingers, and continues to feel pain in both legs. Nhampossa was not badly injured, while “blood had accumulated” under the skin of Andre’s thigh.

The officers did not allow Omar access to his lawyer and ordered him to delete the video that was taken when they surrounded his vehicle, he said. When he refused, the officers falsely accused him of not wearing a mask and drinking in public, he said.

Omar told CPJ that he, Nhampossa, and Andre were held in a “stinking cell, a dark cell, full of mosquitoes” until they were released on June 28.

At Monday’s summary trial, police produced two bottles and one can of beer that they alleged Omar had been drinking, Mosse said. The journalist said he was “extremely shocked” that the judge accepted the police version of events. Nhampossa and Andre were also convicted and each received the same fine he did, said Omar.

Omar told CPJ he believes the government is trying to silence him, because of his reporting about corruption, drug-trafficking, poaching, human rights violations and the conflict in the restive northern Cabo Delgado province.

Government spokesman Arsenio Henriques did not respond to request for comment via email and messaging app.

Police spokesman Orlando Mudumane did not immediately reply to a request for comment via messaging app.

In a Facebook post, Mosse described Omar as one of the boldest of Mozambique’s new generation of journalists, while Zitamar News editor, Tom Bokwer, said on Twitter that Omar  was one of the country’s top reporters on the war in northern Cabo Delgado province.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and other human rights and press freedom organizations have turned to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to request an independent and impartial investigation into a journalist’s disappearance in northeastern Mozambique three months ago.

Ibraimo Mbaruco, a reporter for Rádio Comunitária de Palma, a community radio station in Palma, a remote coastal town in Cabo Delgado province, has been missing since 7 April when, in his last message, he said he was “surrounded by military.” None of the officials with whom the case has been raised, from the head of the Cabo Delgado provincial police to Mozambique’s prosecutor-general, has provided any indication at all as to what may have happened to him.

When Mbaruco’s brother tried calling his mobile phone on 8 June, it rang for the first time since his disappearance. He reported this to the National Agency for Criminal Investigations (SERNIC), which is supposed to be investigating his disappearance. The investigators promised to identify the phone’s location but the family has not heard back from them.

There has been an Islamist insurrection in Cabo Delgado province since 2017.  Hundreds of people have died in fighting between the army and rebels, while thousands have been displaced, and the authorities have done everything possible to prevent journalists from entering the region in order to cover the situation.

“The silence from the authorities about this case of a journalist missing for the past three months is intolerable for the family, and we are determined to find out what happened to him,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “This is not the first time reporters have been roughed up, attacked or detained and held incommunicado in this province, which has been subject to growing violence in recent years. Is Ibraimo Mbaruco dead? Who were the soldiers surrounding him at the time of his last message? Is he being held and, if so where and on what grounds? There are many questions to which the Mozambican authorities must finally respond.”

Three weeks after Mbaruco went missing, RSF and 16 other human rights and press freedom organizations addressed an open letter to President Filipe Nyusi requesting a thorough and transparent investigation into his disappearance. No government or military official has so far reacted and all requests for information have gone unanswered.

Amade Abubacar and Germano Daniela Adriano, two journalists working for local radio and TV station Nacedje in Cabo Delgado’s Macomia district, were detained in a completely illegal manner by the army for several months in early 2019. Since their release in April 2019, they have continued to be charged with “spreading messages damaging to the Mozambican Armed Forces.”

The clampdown on information and arbitrary arrests of journalists in Cabo Delgado are the main reason why Mozambique has fallen sharply in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index in recent years. It is ranked 104th out of 180 countries in the 2020 Index, its worst ranking since the Index was created in 2002.

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