Angola 2016 violations & victories 3 May In a snap poll conducted among journalists working for State media, on May 3, on the occasion of the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day, most of the participants were of the opinion that there is press freedom in Angola. The picture is quite different among journalists in the private media, who, in April, were accused by the state-owned Jornal de Angola, of being mouthpieces of the opposition. 18 January A report on the media situation in Angola would be incomplete without mentioning activist, human rights campaigner and journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, arguably the Angolan government’s long-time nemesis. Rafael Marques lodged a criminal complaint in court against the Governor of Cuanza Sul Province, General Eusébio de Brito Teixeira, for seizing land and then giving it to a company owned by himself. According to the submission delivered to the Office of the AttorneyGeneral, General Brito Teixeira even wrote a petition to the governor of Cuanza Sul Province – that is, to himself – to request the legal rights to land for the construction of a condominium. 8 February In February, human rights and pro-democracy activist, Manuel Chivonde Nito Alves was charged with contempt of Court and subjected to a summary trial, at the trial against the 17 Angolan activists, dubbed the “Angola 17”. The trial reconvened on 8 February and the father of activist Manuel Chivonde Nito Alves was one of the witnesses. During his cross-examination, Nito felt his father was being intimidated by the line of questioning of the prosecutor. He then said out loud “I’m not afraid of losing my life. This trial is a charade”. The utterance prompted the Public Prosecutor to request that Nito be charged with contempt of Court. The judge then stopped the hearing against the 17 activists, suspended the trial for the day and opened new proceedings against Nito on the same day. He was sentenced to six months in prison and asked to pay a fine on 8 February, serving his sentence at Viana Prison. 28 March The same words were said in court on 28 March by another young activist, Francisco Mapanda (also known as Dago Nível Intelecto). He too was found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to eight months in prison. On 5 July, the Constitutional Court ruled on appeal that the trial had violated some of his constitutional rights and ordered his release. He was released on 21 November, seven days earlier than scheduled. 28 March The “Angola 17” were convicted of “preparatory acts of rebellion” and “criminal conspiracy”. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two years and three months to eight and a half years, fined 50,000 kwanzas (US$300) for court costs and jailed. Fifteen of them were arrested in June 2015 in Luanda, after organising a reading of an adaptation of American academic Gene Sharp’s 1993 book, “From Dictatorship to