• ALERT Date: December 28 2007 Persons: Armando Chicoca Violation: Sentenced On December 28 2007, Armando Chicoca, a correspondent of the privately-owned radio station Radio Ecclesia, was sentenced to 30 days in prison by a criminal court in the southwestern city of Namibe on December 28, 2007, following his arrest during a demonstration by street vendors six days earlier. The court dismissed a charge of inciting revolt, but found Chicoca guilty of “disobeying state authority.” He was ordered to pay US$ 260 in court costs and given a one-month sentence. His appeal is to be heard by the Supreme Court. Chicoca was arrested near a market in Namibe on December 22, while interviewing the owners of stalls that were being demolished by the police. The authorities accused him of failing to respect a police security cordon and urging protesters to throw stones. The protests were staged by street vendors objecting to an order issued by provincial governor Boavioda Neto on December 10 to dismantle unauthorised markets and force vendors to move to a new location which they say is too small. The police used force to disperse the demonstrators. While conducting his interviews, Chicoca was grabbed by the police, his equipment was seized and he was escorted to a police station. From there he was taken to Namibe prison, where he was unable to see a lawyer until he appeared in court for the trial on 28 December. Raul Mangueira, a lawyer who heads a regional human rights commission, said after attending the trial that the prosecution failed to produce evidence in support of the charge of disobeying state authority. UPDATE : Armando Chicoca was released after serving 35 days (as opposed to 30 according to the sentence passed) in jail. • ALERT Date: October 3, 2007 Persons: Felisberto da Grâça Campos Violation: Sentenced Prominent Angolan journalist Graca Campos, the owner and director of the country’s leading independent newspaper Semanario Angolense, has been sentenced to eight months in jail. He was charged with defamation and crimen injuria and fined the equivalent of US$250 000. On October 3, the Luanda court found Campos guilty of slandering former Minister of Justice Paulo Tjipilica, now the country’s ombudsman. According to the presiding Judge Peter Viana, the articles in question constitute a violation of the country’s Press Law, since they constitute crimes of insults and slander, set forth under articles 407, 411 and 414 of the Penal Code. Campos will not be able to appeal the finding, Radio Ecclesia quoted the paper’s deputy director Silva Candembo as saying. This means that Campos will already be starting to serve the sentence, the radio added. The case arose out of a series of articles run in the popular Semanario Angolense which accused the then Minister of Justice of neglect in allowing large numbers of illegal immigrants into the country. Angola’s President Jose Eduardo dos Santos earlier this year said that Angola was under a “silent invasion” by African, Asian and European foreigners coming in illegally to exploit the country’s resources, urging authorities to tighten control of the country’s borders. The issue has since then entered the domestic political agenda, with several operations being carried out to expel illegal immigrants, especially in the diamond-rich areas of Luanda, Norte and Lunda Sul in the east of the country. Worse than the prison term, though will be the likely closure of Graca Campos’s newspaper, So This Is Democracy? 2007 -18- Media Institute of Southern Africa