English ing’ of journalists with ‘accreditation’ of journalists. Renowned international freedom of expression expert Toby Mendel put it this way: “licensing of journalists is understood to mean a system whereby individuals are required to apply to an external authority for permission to practice journalism, which permission may be refused or revoked. In some countries, the law places certain minimum conditions on who may practice journalism, such as minimum age or training criteria, or citizenship requirements. Formally, this is not licensing as it does not involve the possibility of permission to practice journalism being refused or revoked. However, where the conditions go beyond the purely technical, for example by removing the right to practice journalism upon conviction for criminal defamation, this system starts to reflect some of the key problems associated with licensing. Accreditation, on the other hand, is quite different from licensing, although the two are sometimes confused. Accreditation involves the granting of special privileges, most commonly access to restricted areas such as legislatures and courts, to journalists on the basis that they will inform the wider public about these proceedings”. “Licensing requirements are inconsistent with international law on freedom of information”, said Enrique Armijo, a media lawyer with the Covington & Burling law firm in Washington, D.C. “The issue is not what Article 19 says; the issue is its enforceability and the use of international law as a tool of litigation in support of prosecuted journalists when you are arguing in domestic courts.” Already as far back as 1985 the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) stated that compulsory licensing of journalists was incompatible with freedom of expression. William Bird of Media Monitoring Africa equated the in- 16 So This is Democracy? 2016 troduction of licensing of journalists to a democracy taking two steps backwards. Also within the wide scope of ERCA, a draft law on the Protection of Networks and Information Technology Systems was also approved in August. Post and Telecommunications Minister José Carvalho da Rocha said the Bill was a response to African Union guidelines on cyber security. It is still too soon to assess the full impact of the law. However, it can be said that a few years back when Angola first planned to introduce legislation on cyber-crimes, it rated fairly high in a study on internet freedom. It now remains to be seen how it will fare once this law is fully applied. Dependence, mightier than the word In April, the Angolan government announced that it would hold weekly briefings with journalists in Luanda to overcome what it termed “the deficit in information about the government”. The meetings will involve ministers and other members of the Government. The director of the Government Office for the Revitalisation and Execution of Institutional Communication and Marketing (GRECIMA), operating from within the Presidency, explained that the objective was to foster a “more professional” relationship with journalists, who routinely complained about limitations in accessing government sources and data. The Portuguese news agency, Lusa, reported in January that corporate and media communication of all Angolan ministries and provincial governments would be coordinated by the Office of Institutional Communication and Press (GCII), created by presidential decree in December 2015. Besides consolidating the communications function, the GCII office will incorporate the professionals in the service of the press offices of the