• ALERT Date: June 24, 2008 Persons: Graca Campos and William Tonet Violation/issue: Charged and sentenced Angolan journalist Graca Campos, director of the Weekly Semanario Angolese, was sentenced on June 23 by an Angolan court to six months in prison for allegedly defaming former Justice Minister Paulo Tjipilika. Campos’ lawyer launched an appeal and it was accepted. William Tonet, the Director of the Weekly Folha 8 is also on trial on defamation charges brought by Angolan First Lady, Ana Paula Dos Santos. • ALERT Date: August 28, 2008 Institution: Media Violation/issue: Other Journalists of private and state communication organs were warned by political analyst Ismael Mateus of the importance of impartial coverage of the electoral campaign, in order to aid the population in voting. Mateus made these remarks during a workshop on ‘The Impact of the Media in Elections’ organised by the Council of Christian Churches of Angola (CICA). Speaking at the same event, the secretary general of the Angolan Journalists’ Trade Union (SJA), Luisa Rogério, said that although journalists vote, they have to place aside their political affiliations to report impartially. • ALERT Date: December 10, 2008 Institution: Media Violation/issue: Other The Angolan syndicate of journalists at the national radio, Rádio Nacional de Angola (RNA), blasted the coverage of the September 5, 2008 parliamentary election saying that it favoured the ruling party. About 70 journalists from the radio station appealed against biased reporting, stating that efforts should be made not to repeat this during future elections. Mario Maiato, head of the syndicate at RNA, was quoted by Portuguese News Agency as saying: “We all followed the news on the television broadcaster, and we saw how they reproduced the same news of the opposition and double the news articles of the ruling party. The ruling party would have four to five minutes while the opposition was given one minute.” According to Maiato, although journalists were trained in principles of journalism, including impartiality, in practice “these values were constantly violated”. He said that a working group will be created within the RNA syndicate of journalists to study the issue within the organisation. Despite an invitation, RNA management did not attend the meeting. Reginaldo Silva, a journalist and political analyst, said that it was a “good sign to see courageous people denouncing such practices”. “The public media is becoming more and more attached to political parties and this has been accentuated since the last elections,” Silva said. The RNA syndicate of journalists seeks to protect and defend the rights of journalists. • ALERT Date: January 30, 2008 Persons: José de Belém and Matilde Vanda Media Violation/issue: Beaten, detained, harassed On January 30, 2008 José de Belém and Matilde Vanda, both reporters from Radio Ecclesia, were interrupted by armed military officers from the presidency while carrying out their duties at Boavista suburb of Luanda. The journalists were investigating reports on the demolition of houses in a poor community to make way for the construction of new infrastructure. De So This Is Democracy? 2008 -12- Media Institute of Southern Africa