African Media Barometer Mozambique 2018 Summary The sixth round of the African Media Barometer (AMB) for Mozambique was held on 3 to 4 August 2018, in the locality of Macaneta, Marracuene District, Maputo Province. Due to technical and organisational challenges, the AMB 2018 report was delayed. Since the AMB exercise occurred, the political context in Mozambique has undergone important changes, such as constitutional reforms, which have widened the scope of political decentralisation, introduced the election of provincial governors and altered the design of municipal elections (presidents elected as head of party lists). In addition, a social debate on democratic coexistence is developing after the signing of a new peace accord (01/08/2019), which should put an end to the political and military conflict between the Frelimo government and the largest opposition party, Renamo. As a result, facilitators and panellists agreed to add references to these new developments (which occurred during the editing of the AMB) whenever this serves the contextualisation of the assessment. The AMB panel concluded that the media sector in Mozambique operates in a legal context that allows for both freedom of expression and press freedom; in spite of their practice being marked by many serious setbacks – mainly in the last three years. These include persecution, threats, detentions, criminal proceedings, murders and attempts against press professionals as a way to repress the exercise of freedom of the press and freedom of expression. In what concerns the violation of press freedom, survey results disclosed last year by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) indicated that 21 cases of attacks against press freedom have been reported in 2017 and 32 cases in 2018. Among the diverse cases of violations characterised by death threats, impediment in covering relevant events, confiscation of journalistic equipment by the police, physical aggressions and assaults on newsrooms and detentions – which have been verified during the analysed timeframe – two cases stand out as emblematic: the 2016 shooting of José Jaime Macuane, academic scholar and political commentator for the STV (Soico Televisão) programme Pontos de Vista and the 2018 kidnapping, torture and shooting of Ericíno de Salema, journalist, human rights activist and STV commentator. Since 1990, Mozambique has been a democratic state based on the rule of law, with a constitution that is grounded on the principles of separation of powers, multipartism and respect for fundamental rights and civil liberties. Article 48 of the constitution of the republic explicitly guarantees both freedom of expression and freedom of the press. More specifically, freedom of the press is guaranteed, protected and promoted by the Press Law – Law number (nº) 18/91 of 10 August. 5 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER MOZAMBIQUE 2018