Nawaal Deane
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a United States-based organisation, this week stepped in to shield Rafael Marques, an Angolan journalist, from continued harassment by the Angolan government.
In a letter to Angolan President Jos Eduardo dos Santos, the CPJ strongly protested against the government’s continued persecution of Marques and other journalists in the war-torn country. Marques was barred from leaving Angola on Tuesday despite official assurances and a signed court order stating that all previous travel restrictions against him had been lifted.
Marques fell into disfavour when he was convicted of defaming the president in a newspaper article in a July 1999 issue of the private weekly publication Agora. It has been reported that Marques believes he is at the centre of a dispute between rival factions of the government. According to Marques, immigration officials at the airport in Luanda not only denied him the right to travel, but also confiscated his passport and sent him home without explanation.
The CPJ says the Angolans have breached assurances from the government that it would work to reverse policies that restrict the media and punish journalists for reporting news and expressing opinions.
On December 8 a Luandan court lifted all travel restrictions against Marques and two other journalists, Aguiar dos Santos and Antonio Freitas. Marques took the order to the airport, where it was stamped by an immigration official who indicated the journalist would have no problem leaving Angola. But this week he was stopped by another immigration official, Sir-mino Somazie, who took his passport and told him to return home.
In the letter the CPJ demanded that the government return Marques’s passport and allow him to leave the country.