Africa-Press – Mozambique. A judge in the Zambezia Provincial Court, sitting in the central Mozambican city of Quelimane, on Thursday illegally prevented journalists from covering a case of electoral fraud that happened during last year’s municipal elections.
A teacher from the Catholic University of Mozambique, Telma Taula, was caught red-handed on 11 October, the day of the elections, in possession of extra ballot papers marked in advance in favour of the ruling Frelimo Party.
According to the electronic paper “Diario de Zambezia”, published in Quelimane, at the start of the trial, the judge, Olinda Chombe, ordered a cameraman, Salvador Manaques, to leave the room, without any justification.
She then ordered the confiscation of the mobile phones of reporter Elsa da Costa, and of other media professionals present. To make matters even worse, the judge forbade reporters from taking any notes of the proceedings.
Commenting on these abuses, the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body, MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa), through its Zambezia Provincial Nucleus, condemned them as “serious violations of freedom of the press and of the right to information, which are guaranteed under the Mozambican constitution”.
The Constitution and the 1991 Press Law give journalists the right to remain in any place where their presence may be necessary to exercise their professional duties.
The Press Law also states that journalists have the right “not to be detained, removed, or in any way prevented from performing their duties in any place where their presence as media professionals may be necessary”.
A release by MISA said that Judge Chombe, by preventing the cameraman from taking images of the trial, by seizing mobile phones, and by banning the simple taking of notes, “not only interfered blatantly in journalistic activity, but also prejudiced the right of the public to information about a matter of great public interest, such as the involvement of a university lecturer in electoral crimes”.
MISA noted that the Mozambican laws on press freedom had been broken by a judge, whose duty was to uphold the law, not violate it.
MISA has submitted a request to the Quelimane court requesting authorization for journalists to cover the next session of the trial, which is scheduled for Monday.
But this request does not mean that MISA has accepted the illegal bans imposed by Chombe on Thursday. Indeed, MISA state that it reserves the right “to resort to higher instances of the justice system to demand that Judge Olinda Chombe be held responsible for the violations committed, and that measures be taken to guarantee that these violations are not repeated”.
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