Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Mozambican branch of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, MISA Moçambique, today reported the detention of a local journalist in Cabo Delgado, calling it an “attack” against journalism.
“Arlindo Chissale, a journalist of the online portal ‘Pinnacle News’, has been detained and held incommunicado since last Tuesday (25 October) in an act allegedly carried out by the government authorities of the district of Balama,” the MISA statement reads.
The NGO demands Chissale’s “immediate release” and says it intends to find out who is responsible for ”this attack on journalistic independence”.
“Contacted by the journalist’s relatives, Balama district administrator Edson Lino confirmed the fact of Chissale’s arrest, and said that he would be released,” adds MISA, but “information is scarce”.
MISA cites sources close to the victim who say that Chissale was “capturing images of public institutions in the district” when he was arrested.
“The capture of images of public institutions by journalists is a procedure typical of the profession,” MISA explains.
Chissale is the latest case of detention and intimidation of journalists by the authorities in Cabo Delgado since the beginning of the armed insurgency five years ago.
Ibraimo Abu Mbaruco, from Radio Comunitaria de Palma, disappeared in April, 2020, after being surrounded by soldiers, and was never seen again.
In 2019, Amade Abubacar and Germano Adriano were detained on charges of violating state secrets and inciting disorder and mistreated by the authorities for four months, in a case contested by the United Nations and other organisations.
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