• ALERT Date: July 20, 2008 Institutions: Alternativa Violation/issue: Other The independent media organisation, Alternativa, one of Mozambique’s daily news organisations that distributes news by fax and e-mail, lost equipment in a break in on July 19, 2008. The news organisation lost four computers, according to editor Sérgio Massinga. Massinga told MISA Mozambique that the computers that were stolen contained stories, which had been prepared for the upcoming edition. As such, the issue had to be cancelled. “That was all we had in terms of computers, so we are really in a bad situation,” he added. This break-in and theft of computers is the latest in a long string of such events, raising suspicion and concern that there is more to these events than mere burglary. • ALERT Date: July 22, 2008 Person/institutions: Fernando Veloso, Luís Nhachote, Alvarito de Carvalho and Zambeze newspaper Violation/issue: Charged The Maputo Judicial Court postponed on July 21, 2008 the trial of three Zambeze journalists. The three – Fernando Veloso, Luís Nhachote and Alvarito de Carvalho –are accused of threatening state security after they wrote an article questioning whether the country’s Prime Minister, Luísa Diogo, was Mozambican or Portuguese. The trial has been postponed to August 12, following a request by the Prosecution Authority, which said its representative in that case was not available. Observers who spoke to MISA Mozambique questioned the speed at which the matter was conducted, an unusual development in Mozambique, where the justice system is normally. The authors of the article were called to appear in court 24 hours after the issue was published. And in two months the trial was almost done with. • ALERT Date: August 20, 2008 Person/institutions: Mediafax Violation/issue: Charged Mozambique’s news agency, AIM, reported on August 19, 2008 that the independent daily newssheet, Mediafax, had apologised to the President of Mozambique’s Supreme Court, Mario Mangaze, five years after it carried an opinion piece accusing him of failing to pay land fees on 5,530 hectares of land to which he held title. The author of the piece, Charles Baptista (who writes under the pen name Edwin Hounnou), was threatened with a libel suit by Mangaze. Baptista subsequently wrote a letter of apology admitting that there was no truth in the allegation, published on May 15, 2003, and that the land fees owing had, in fact, been paid. • ALERT Date: September 3, 2008 Person/institutions: Fernando Veloso, Luís Nhachote, Alvarito de Carvalho and Zambeze newspaper Violation/issue: Sentenced Three journalists working for Zambeze newspaper – Fernando Veloso, Luís Nhachote and Alvarito de Carvalho – were sentenced to six months in prison, converted to a monetary fine of 30 Mozambican Meticais (US$1,2). The ruling was made on August 29, 2008. The three were charged for allegedly defaming Prime Minister Luísa Diogo and threatening state security. The court dismissed the state’s request that the journalists pay a fine of US$400. Eduardo Jorge, the journalists’ lawyer, told MISA Mozambique that he is going to appeal the sentence, saying he was not happy with it. So This Is Democracy? 2008 -64- Media Institute of Southern Africa