0R]DPELTXH :KDWZDVWKHJHQHUDOVWDWHRI WKHPHGLDLQ0R]DPELTXHLQ " Over the past couple of years, Mozambique has experienced an environment that has allowed journalists and the media to freely inform the public. Since the murder of Carlos Cardoso in 2000, there has been no record of a journalist that has been murdered or killed. Nevertheless, political and economic powers have sophisticated their tactics in order to crack down dissonant voices. These include economic blackmail, threat and bribes. On the other hand, although there are few cases of journalists’ imprisonment, the press law does not embrace all media subsectors and concentrates mainly on the press. Access to information continues to be a challenge for citizens and the media itself. Advocacy entities, including the media, have been pushing for the approval of the proposal Bill that has lay dormant in parliament for almost five years. On the other hand, the press law is maladjusted to the current reality and the overall legal landscape is blackmailing. The beginning of the debate on Con- 6R7KLVLV'HPRFUDF\" stitutional revision possesses new opportunities for legal harmonisation and clarification of some laws that have been until today denied to citizens. The struggle of advocacy organisations converges on the need for the Constitution to grant itself free and unconditional access to information to every Mozambican. Moreover, the discussion of the criminal code opens space for the suppression of anti-media legislation such as press crimes, which still includes defamation as a crime. Despite this seemingly good picture, in the country’s northern region, people’s freedoms significantly diminish. The situation is worse in rural areas where the local officials have very little knowledge about press freedom-relates aspects. This makes them the principal offenders of the press law as they systematically violate the people’s Constitutional rights to free opinion and expression. For example, in 2012, local officials closed down two community radio stations, Furancungo in Tete Province and Macequecesse in Manica Province, whilst community radio activists were threatened in different ways. Furthermore, on July 20th in the city of Beira, Falume Chabane, the former editor of the online news journal O Au-