State of the media in Southern Africa - 2003 ■ ALERTS • DATE: January 31, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Carlos Cardoso VIOLATIONS: Victory S ix men accused of killing Mozambican journalist Carlos Cardoso were convicted on Janu ary 31 and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Meanwhile, fugitive suspect Anibal dos Santos Junior, commonly known as Anibalzhino, who escaped from pretrial detention, was captured yesterday in South Africa and extradited to Mozambique, Interpol-South Africa announced. Anibalzhino was tried in absentia for leading the death squad that murdered Cardoso in November 2000 and was sentenced to 28 years and six months in jail. The other five suspects were sentenced to at least 23 years in jail each. • DATE: October 7, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Hermínio Nhanombe, Ruben Jossai VIOLATIONS: Threatened, censored O n October 7 2003, TVM (Mozambique Television) journalist Hermínio Nhanombe and Ruben Jossai, of Savana newspaper, were threatened and harassed by the bodyguard of Afonso Dlakhama, leader of the opposition Resistencia Nacional Mocambicana (RENAMO). The journalists were covering a political gathering in the Vilankulos district, in southern Mozambique. The journalists were covering a political gathering in the Vilankulos district, in southern Mozambique. The journalists were also denied an opportunity to take photographs or notes relative to the event. • DATE: October 8, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Luis Dionisio VIOLATIONS: Beaten O n October 8 2003, Anteje Buanar, chairperson of the União Desportiva de Sanjala foot ball club, attacked Luis Dionisio, a sports journalist with the provincial station Radio Mozambique (RM-EP), in the northwestern province of Niassa. Buanar also attempted to confiscate the journalist’s equipment. The incident took place at the end of a football match between União Desportiva de Sanjala and São Paulo de Cuamba, during the first leg of the Niassa provincial tournament. • DATE: November 3, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Fritz Stark VIOLATIONS: Beaten, equipment confiscated O n November 3 2003, freelance German journalist Fritz Stark was threatened, assaulted and had his equipment confiscated by unknown assailants in Quelimane, the capital of Zambézia province, in Mozambique’s central region. Stark, aged 38, has been working in Mozambique for about two years. Shortly before the assault, he was taking photographs of a march of the Madgermanes, former Mozambican migrant workers in the now-defunct German Democratic Republic (GDR). • DATE: November 9, 2003 PERSONS/INSTITUTIONS: Salvador Januario VIOLATIONS: Detained So This Is Democracy? 2003 62 Media Institute of Southern Africa