F reedom of the media should be a given in a democracy and such a freedom is enshrined in the Angolan constitution. But these are watershed years in Angola, with a number of factors coalescing to give reason for the Angolan Government and elite to feel unsettled to say the least. It is all about the preservation of power and Angolan Government is now using the judiciary to do its dirty work. This watershed time coincides with an unprecedented scrutiny of Angolan financial activities in Portugal, with investigations targeting the interests of high-profile Angolans, including Deputy President Manuel Vicente and companies with ties to the president’s daughter, Isabel dos Santos, who owns significant assets in Portugal, especially in the banking sector. With this already straining relations between the two countries, it did not go down well when Portuguese civil society rose in defence of Angolan human rights activists. Add to that pressure at the European Union spearheaded by Portuguese member of the EU parliament Ana Gomes, who compiled a report that led to the EU asking Angola to free all human rights advocates immediately and unconditionally. Gomes also claimed that the Angolan Government made subtle attempts to buy her silence on the issue of human rights in Angola. The timing coincides also with the uncertainty over the eventual exit from politics of the 73-year old President Dos Santos, was announced in March that he will leave office in 2018, by then after 39 years in power. While deputy President Manuel Vicente was widely expected to fill Dos Santos’s shoes, some analysts are now beginning to entertain the pos- sibility that he is preparing to hand over the reins to one of his children. CONTROL OF THE MEDIA Would-be applicants for community radio licences are told that they will have to wait until the Radio Law is published. However, the radio station Rádio Mais has been launched and enjoys nationwide coverage, much to the chagrin of the Catholic Church’s Rádio Ecclésia, which continues restricted to the Luanda area. Rádio Despertar (formerly the UNITA radio station) and Rádio Ecclésia are regularly threatened with closure. Both stations keep a list of people they are not supposed to allow on air. The same double standards apply to television: with no television law yet in place, the private free-to-air television station, TV Zimbo has been licensed – on an ‘experimental’ basis, without meeting the prescribed processes. The government has added a new weapon to its already formidable arsenal, enacting the Law on Precautionary Measures in Criminal Proceedings, which allows the state to detain suspects indefinitely.