Mozambique
PRINT MEDIA
One of the positive aspects of the print
media in 2017 had to do with the fact
that although the environment remained
tense, there were still pockets of newspapers and journalists who challenged
the environment of fear.
Among the negative aspects, Mozambique continued to be characterised by
a high number of journalists who violated ethical standards in the exercise
of their profession. This situation was
exploited by some sectors to initiate attacks against the media.3
The year 2017 was not among the best
in Mozambique, given the high volume
of press freedom threats reported by
MISA Mozambique.

At present the scenario tends to be
changeable. The MISA Mozambique
Transparency Assessment (2017) revealed that from 2016 to 2017 there has
not been considerable progress, be it in
the availability of information through
websites, or in the way public or private organisations were restructuring to
accommodate the process of receiving
requests for information. In the 2017 edition, there was a slight improvement in
the response to requests for information,
although these were unsatisfactory, since
they only responded to the requests but
failed to provide the information. Contrary to the previous year (2016) when
only one institution responded, in 2017
at least three institutions responded to
the requests.4

ACCESS TO INFORMATION
In 2017, the government and MISA began a process of training journalists and
public officials in key positions – most
of them managers and those responsible
for updating websites – in the process
of making information available to the
public. The aim was to guarantee that
some 70% of public officials in the
sectors dealing with the provision of
information, were armed with relevant
knowledge and changed practices in
relation to citizens in the sphere of the
right to information.
One of the expected results was a high
degree of government response to requests for information and/or proactive
disclosure of information, ensuring a
response to more than 60% of citizens’
requests for information.

3 MISA Moçambique e CEC. “Análise de Questões
Éticas na Imprensa Escrita em Moçambique 2016”.
Maputo, Abril de 2017.

Mozambique
continued to be
characterised by
a high number of
journalists who
violated ethical
standards in the
exercise of their
profession.

4 MISA Moçambique. “Moçambique: Avaliação da
Transparência 2017”. Maputo, Setembro de 2017.
Disponível em http://www.misa.org.mz/index.php/
publicacoes/relatorios/direito-a-informacao-1/85avaliacao-de-transparencia-misa-2017/file.

So This is Democracy? 2017

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