Maputo — The President of the Mozambican supreme Court, Mario Mangaze, on Wednesday denied that a speech he had made on 3 March, at the opening of the judicial year, threatened the press.

Speaking to reporters, Mangaze accused those who talked of threats of not reading his speech properly. "There are no threats there at all", he said. "Criticism yes, but no threats".

"We agree that the press can and should criticise public institutions", said Mangaze. "But the institutions also have a right to criticise the press. This is a right that we all have".

What Mangaze actually said on 3 March was that, while there were journalists who wrote with "rigour, objectivity and a constructive spirit, even when they make harsh criticisms", there were others who "flagrantly violate the law and seriously offend citizens and institutions". They had published "false and malicious items which are a real insult to the intelligence of Mozambicans".

He cited several specific cases - notably the invention by the weekly paper "Zambeze" of a false verdict and sentence in the Carlos Cardoso murder case. On 30 January, "Zambeze" claimed it possessed an advance copy of the verdict. But what it published bore very little relation to what was read out in court the following day, when the six men accused of murdering investigative journalist Carlos Cardoso were sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Mangaze warned that "when abuses of the press reach a certain level, even when committed by a minority, they may lead in the mid or long term, to the loss or limitation of the rights and freedoms of journalists".

Did this mean that Mangaze was planning to limit press freedom ? Hardly - since in the following paragraph, he said he was worried by the feelings of revulsion against the behaviour of some of the press "which magistrates, policemen and people from other fields of activity are expressing in private".

In the past, Mangaze noted, "in certain quarters corporatist movements have arisen against press abuses. When movements like this are set up and persist, they may endanger fundamental freedoms that cost a great deal to attain - the freedom of the press and individual rights".

This warning has been twisted into an attack on press freedom, notably by the main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo. Indeed, on Wednesday morning one Renamo parliamentary deputy, Jose Manteigas, accused Mangaze of preparing the way for "the return of fascism".

Asked about this accusation, Mangaze said "It makes me want to laugh. It's so ridiculous that it's not worth commenting on".

As for a story published in February in the daily paper "Noticias, according to which the presiding judge of the Gondola district court in the central province of Manica, Luis Mualovo, had ordered the torture of a detainee, Mangaze said that an inquiry into the judge's behaviour was under way.

"The initial findings indicate that what appeared in "Noticias" was very distorted", added Mangaze. "Had I been the Gondola judge I would have demanded the right to reply".