49 SOUTHERN AFRICA PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2019-2020 MOZAMBIQUE Both the MISA Mozambique (81) and Freedom House reports, (82) indicate that there has been great deterioration in democracy, particularly due to a rise in authoritarianism, military conflicts and the war in Cabo Delgado; and the increase in corruption cases marked by the discovery of undeclared debts which deeply indebted the Mozambican state; and also from the impact of Covid-19, which significantly stimulated the appetites of government members to control the press. PERSECUTION OF JOURNALISTS By Ernesto C Nhanale INTRODUCTION Since 2018 and 2019, Mozambique has been facing setbacks in the exercise of freedom of the press and expression. The sixth round of the African Media Barometer shows that, although the media operate in a legally free environment in Mozambique, there were serious violations of press freedom and freedom of expression, characterised by kidnappings, death threats, preventing journalists from accessing information and covering relevant events, seizing of work equipment, assaults on newsrooms, arrests and bribing of journalists, politicians and academics. (77) The political and military conflicts in the centre and north of the country, Covid-19, generalised corruption, the resurgence of organised crime and the trend to state authoritarianism, mark the overall context in which the freedoms of the press and of expression have suffered abuses in Mozambique. MEDIA FREEDOM MISA Mozambique, in the “State of Press Freedoms,” (78) has reported on 20 cases of violations against journalists of which many are characterised by detentions, assaults, threats against journalists, and theft and vandalising of media offices. A further 16 cases of violations against journalists and press freedoms (79) were reported from the Cabo Delgado region, where a journalist has disappeared without a trace. The burning down of the weekly paper Canal de Mocambique is a landmark event in the culmination of offences against press freedoms in Mozambique. (80) The media environment in Mozambique is increasingly volatile. There is a need to democratise the country, as well as work for a change in behaviour to ensure greater respect for the freedoms of expression and of the press. Serious violations against press freedom are going unpunished, observed in silence by the national authorities who, on many occasions, are connected to, or allegedly even order some crimes against the media. The armed conflict involving Islamic extremists and the Mozambican forces in Cabo Delgado province has made the practice of journalism dangerous. It is seen by soldiers as an enemy activity and from 2017, cases began to be reported of detentions of journalists and confiscation of their equipment. Journalists were also obliged to supply their emails and passwords, in flagrant violation of their privacy. On 7 April 2020 the journalist and newsreader on Palma radio and television, Ibraimo Mbaruco, was kidnapped in Palma town itself (83) and Missing journalist and newsreader Ibraimo Mbaruco CREDIT: MISA Mozambique