Meeting

Freedom of expression, activism and intimidation in Mozambique: reflections and testimonies

April 24, 2018, 16h00

Room 2, CES | Alta

Framework

Among the challenges currently faced by democracies in Southern Africa are the declining of civic space, criminalization of protest, repression, harassment and intimidation of activists, progressive scholars, journalists and popular movements. The consolidation of increasingly authoritarian and repressive States - from Tanzania to South Africa, from Angola to Mozambique - has resulted in the censorship and closure of media, the persecution and murder of journalists, and the repression of popular movements.

Mozambique is probably the country in the region where the repression and intimidation of figures critical of the ruling regime is most notable at this time. Despite the Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique and specific legislation guaranteeing various freedoms - freedom of association, demonstration, expression, press and the right to information - cases of abduction, intimidation, torture and even murder of opinion leaders and opposition politicians has increased.

Most recently, on March 26 of this year, Ericino de Salema, a Mozambican journalist, commentator and lawyer, was abducted outside the headquarters of the National Union of Journalists in Maputo, tortured and left unconscious on the side of a motorway, outside the city of Maputo. The Mozambican Bar Association described the act as "barbarous, a gross violation of freedom of expression, contrary to the laws". The academic and commentator José Jaime Macuane (speaker at this seminar) was the victim of a similar violence in May 2016, having been shot and abandoned in the vicinity of the same motorway.

In this seminar, we want to broaden the debate on freedom of expression and political activism in Mozambique, seeking to reflect on the contours of violation of the rights of expression in Mozambique and beyond. The reflections fall within broader debates on civil society, public space, criminalization of protest and civic participation.


Speakers 

Boaventura Monjane (CES, PhD candidate, journalista  and Mozambican activist)

José Jaime Macuane (Eduardo Mondlane University, lecturer and Mozambican political activist) – [by teleconference]

Manuel Matola (Mozambican journalist and Phd candidate, Faculuty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra)

Maria Paula Meneses (CES, Mozambican Researcher)

Comments: Sofia da Palma Rodrigues (Portuguese journalist and CES PhD candidate) || Moderator: Teresa Cunha (CES)